Sokka's beard
by megi52
Summary: Sokka is separated from the gAang after an attack from combustion man and has to get back to them before three days are up can he do it TOKKA
1. Sokka's Beard

**A/N- this is my first and probably my only story I'm not much of a writer but this has been bugging me for like a week and I'm home all alone waiting to get my hand x-rayed I think I broke my pinky so yeah please read and review**

**DISCLAIMER- I own nothing...or do I? dun dun dun**

**Sokka's beard**

"So tell me again why you glued it to your face Sokka?"

"It just seemed like a good idea at the time" he said slightly hurt Toph just continued to stare blankly ahead. Aang and katara had gone into the nearby village to buy supplies leaving Toph and Sokka to entertain themselves.

"I kind of wish I hadn't its really itchy"

"Well Snoozles you could always let me rip it off" she smiled wickedly and it sent chills down Sokka's spine.

He laughed nervously "heh heh no thanks I think I'll deal with it for now thank you very much"

"Fine have it your way" she sat down next to him and started to bend small rocks into odd shapes. Then suddenly and idea popped into her head and she smiled one of her signature smiles.

Sokka was off in his own world not really thinking of much when suddenly he felt small hands touch his face and then they started to tug at his false beard.

"Hey what do you think your doing!" he jumped back away from Toph who was now looking at him in a way that made him feel oddly thrilled and scared at the same time, and there was another sensation in his stomach that he couldn't quit place. It was an odd sensation and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not.

"What does it look like I'm doing, dancing?"

"Well..." he stopped Toph gad gotten up and took a step towards him he took a step back.

"Come on quit being a wuss it won't hurt that much"

"How do you know have you ever had anything glued to your face and then ripped off"

"No but still' she took another step and he took another one back. He really did not like that look on her face it made him feel funny but he would ponder on the reason why later, right now he had to get out of this situation.

"You know Toph we could play a game or something if your bored, we don't have to turn to physically attacking me and causing me pain you know"

"Yeah I know but what would be more fun than that" and with that statement she took a huge jump forward landing right in front of him.

"EEP!" Sokka turned around and began to run but as he did so Toph just laughed and made a rock come out of the ground to trip him but he jumped over it.

"Ohh so you want to play it like that" she disappeared into the ground, but Sokka kept running until he was out off sight of the camp. When he looked back he noticed that she was nowhere to be seen so he stopped, panting slightly from his short run and the fact that he was scared witless because he had no idea where she had gone.

Suddenly the ground below him erupted and Toph pounced on him pinning him to the earth beneath her.

"HA!" she shouted in triumph

But now Sokka's instincts had taken over and he rolled over and pinned her to the ground beneath his body.

"HA!" he said rather smugly "Who has who now oh great earthbender Toph Bei Fong almighty bender of metal"

Toph had a strange expression on her face Sokka noted it wasn't her usual bold one or her bored one or even the one she had worn a few minute ago that had confused him. This one was one that kind of looked like embarrassment, and her cheeks flushed in a blush. It somehow made her look rather cute and Sokka liked it.

"Umm Sokka, Toph what are you doing" Katara and Aang had just got back from the town and had walked in on this very strange seen with Sokka straddling Toph who looked very flushed and embarrassed.

"KATARA! Its not what it looks like" Sokka had just realized how this must look to anyone who might see them and he was very embarrassed about it.

Meanwhile Toph had regained her composure, she had been shocked that sokka had said those things about her. As far as she knew he hadn't noticed her at all but then he goes and compliments her on her abilities, sure he did it in a sarcastic matter but still. She also liked him being so close to her, she quickly flipped Sokka over and ripped his beard off leaving his skin red and puffy.

"OUCH"

"See now that wasn't so bad now was it"

"YES!"

"Quit being a baby"

Aang and Katara just watched as their two friends argued back and forth with Toph now straddling Sokka.

Katara was amused with the whole thing. She had a feeling that Toph liked her brother, she was going to have to remember to ask her about it sometime maybe next time they needed supplies they could have a girls night out or something.  
Aang on the other hand found it really creepy but he wasn't going to say anything about it so he just watched.

Sokka's and Toph's argument had died down and now they just glared at each other. Sokka was confused, he thought he had finally figured out that strange feeling he got when Toph looked at him in that way. It was the same feeling he was getting with her on top of him right now and they same feeling he got when he kissed Suki. But why was he feeling it with Toph didn't make sense to him.

Toph on the other hand was enjoying herself immensely, she knew she had feeling for him and she guessed that this was her way of showing them.

Katara cleared her throat "Ahem yeah well, me and Aang are going to go and make dinner now, right Aang"

"Huh ohh right sure thing Katara" and with that they left.

Sokka watched them leave. "Uhh Toph are you going to get off me anytime soon"

"Maybe I don't want to"

"Fine then" he rolled over and pinned her to the ground again

"Hey get off me"

"Not until you say your sorry"

"Never"

"Fine then I guess I won't be getting off anytime soon"

"That's what you think ponytail" and then Toph sunk herself into the ground leaving a very confused Sokka to walk back to camp.

That night when every one was asleep Sokka stayed awake and thought about his feelings for Toph. Sure she was his friend but could she really be more than that, he wasn't sure. Finally he decided that he would look into his strange feelings instead of just ignoring them, which was is initial idea and with that thought he went to sleep. His dreams that night were filled with him and Toph laughing together and enjoying each others company. When he woke he decided maybe liking Toph as more then a friend wasn't a bad thing after all.

**A/N- Well I hoped you liked it please review it would mean a lot to me and after reading it threw I think I might continue it if lots of people want me to that is idk I had trouble ending it it might become a drabble if I feel motivated I hope I didn't make to many mistakes I'm not sure if I did or not ok now I'm rambling so this is megi saying good night (wow that was gay)**


	2. confrontation

**A/N-thanks to all my reviewers I love you all MWA!! **

**DISCLAIMER-I don't own avatar although I do own this book on airbending its pretty cool **

Aang, Katara, and Toph all sat around waiting for Sokka to get back from his training with the master. None of them really knew how much they needed him until he was gone, he was their source of distraction from there tough mission, the source of comedy they needed to get them through the day.

Aang sat up, "Hey guys I'm going to go take a bath there's a river in the valley so I won't be too far away."

"Ok Aang, but be careful," Katara said, sometimes she got worried when Aang was away from the group.

"I will, I promise," Aang smiled and left, leaving Toph, and Katara by themselves. This gave Katara an idea.

"So, Toph."

"Yeah"

"When Sokka gets back, I'm sure he'll have lots of stories to tell us about his training and stuff like that"

"So"

"So, when he tells them I'm sure you'll be very interested you could even sit next to him"

"What are you getting at" she had an idea but for now she would play dumb.

Katara decided to get right to the point, "You like him don't you? Admit it"

"I have no idea what you are talking about"

"Yes you do, what was that going on the other day when me and Aang saw you two on top of each other"

"That, Sugarqueen, is what one would call entertaining yourselves, as you and Aang told us to do before you left for town"

"You know what I think it was"

"Please tell, I'm dieing to know your thoughts"

"I think you where flirting with him"

"I was not, he was complaining about that stupid beard and when he wouldn't let me rip it off for him I decided to do it the hard way"

"Ok fine, but if you don't like him then why do you hold onto is arm when we're on Appa, or when we were on that boat"

"Because I can't see duh"

"Yeah, but why don't you hold me or Aang?"

"Because Aang is to flighty, like he could just dash off without warning, and your too motherly for my taste. If I let you do it you would cuddle me the rest of the week. But Sokka he's nice and stable, and he appreciates the fact that I'm independent," she said the part about Sokka in a tone she knew would give her away, but she couldn't take back what she said now.

"Which is why you like him, isn't it"

"Well why do you like Twinkletoes"

"What! I do not"

"Yeah you do, the only one who doesn't know it is him" Toph smirked she had her now.

"Fine let's just drop it then"

"Good timing too because here he comes now"

Aang appeared over the crest of the hill they were on, "Hey Katara, Hey Toph, so did anything new happen while I was gone?"

"No!" they both said in unison

"Uuumm ok" they were acting funny Aang thought, but he just sat down and said nothing.

**A/N- well there you have it chapter 2 I hope I did a better job punctuating this time.**

**Also I think I'm gonna change the name since its not a oneshot anymore if you have any ideas I would love to hear them **

**Thanks all -Megi**


	3. thank you

**A/N- Again I say thanks to my wonderful readers and reviewers you give me the courage to go on, seriously without you guys I would have stopped the only reason I started writing is b/c of the idea I had that just wouldn't go away. Also if you haven't seen Sokka's master yet there is some slight spoilers in this I just realized that I didn't warn people on my last two chapters I hope I didn't ruin anyone day or anything and if I did sorry**

**Disclaimer-I don't own avatar although I do have Aang tied up in my basement **

Sokka was exited about making his own sword it would be unique, no one else would ever have a sword like his . This is because he planed to use a material no one has ever used before and one no one will ever get a chance to use again. He planed on using the meteorite that had crash landed the other day, the meteorite that had made him realize that compared to every one else in the group he was worthless. Sure they had tried to say it wasn't true, but it didn't work in his mind he wasn't a worrier he was just Sokka the regular guy. And that hurt him deeply, knowing that all this time he wasn't as good as he thought he was. But all that was going to change all with the help of Master Piandao. Sokka was about to become the warrior he was meant to be, he had to.

Sokka was walking up the hill that would take him to the camp they had set up earlier. He briefly wondered how the others were doing without him, that is until he saw all three of them running at top speed towards him.

"Hey, guys what are you doing"

"Sokka!"

"Your back!"

"We missed you so much"

"Say something funny" Aang said quickly

"Funny how?" At this Katara and Aang busted up laughing. "What's their deal?" he asked turning to Toph.

"I don't know" she replied turning away from him, Sokka smiled, she was very pretty. "they missed you or something, I didn't care" she blushed after saying this. 'Ohh man I hope Katara doesn't see' she thought to herself

For some reason this statement made Sokka's heart hurt. He had, a couple of days ago, come to the conclusion that he thought of Toph as more than a friend. But it had never a cured to him that she might not feel the same way. What if she found out, he could only imagine what that would do to their friendship, or for that matter what she might do to him personally.

"Thanks that warms my heart" even though he said this completely normally he couldn't quite keep the look of hurt off his face, and he really hoped Katara didn't notice. "Anyway I need some help"

Toph noted his vibrations they were lying, but what did that mean

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Sokka fed the flames, melting the meteorite that would soon become his weapon. Though he was exited about the prospect of having his very own sword and becoming a master swordsman, his mind kept wondering back to Toph. And he even had a conversation with himself about her and what she had said. It went something like this.

'I can't believe she doesn't like me, she didn't even miss me'

'don't be stupid of coarse she likes you, I mean who wouldn't?'

'obviously she doesn't'

'maybe she was lying'

'of coarse that's got to be it I mean look at me I'm sexy, now all I have to do is tell her how I feel and th…'

'Woe there cowboy don't get ahead of yourself now, first you have to do nice things for her, you know get her stuff, or compliment her. You can't just tell her, you might scare her and she could reject you' '

'good point, but what should I get her?'

He stopped and thought about this. She didn't like normal girly things so that ruled out flowers. She couldn't see so that ruled out any type of card or note that he could leave her in secret. He could carve her something, but he wasn't that skilled in carving, and it made him think of Yue.

He stood up from were he had been sitting and added more coal to the fire, and then an idea struck him. He went over to the area where he had been endlessly chipping the meteorite and looked around on the floor. Ha! there were small pieces left he pocketed one of them, 'I hope Toph likes it' he thought to himself before going back to his work

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"Toph I thought you might like this, since you probably haven't had a chance to bend space earth before"

"Sweet, check this out" she took the rock and started bending it into many different shapes.

"You know I don't think that there's such a thing as space earth if its from space then its not earth" said Katara

Sokka turned to her "Must you ruin everything" he said annoyed.

"I can't believe I missed you"

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Later that night Toph stayed up later than everyone else. She couldn't go to sleep she thought of Sokka, and her feelings towards him. She liked him a lot, but wasn't sure if it was love or just a crush. How could she be sure, she didn't have anything to compare to, the only human interaction she ever got before meeting Sokka was her parents and the guys at earthbending competitions. But she really didn't think that last one counted because the only things she ever said to them were taunting and mean.

She yawned and started to walk closer to the camp, she had been out away from everyone. As she was walking she was so caught up in her thoughts that she wasn't paying attention and walked right into the one person she had been thinking about, the same person who made her heart beat fast and made her feel warm inside and out, the same person (though she didn't know it) that had been thinking of her and hadn't been watching where he was going.

They both landed in a heap on the ground, Sokka on top of Toph.

"TOPH!' Sokka said sounding surprised. He looked down at her she looked even prettier with the moon shining on her like it was now. He was so wrapped up in her looks he forgot the position he was in.

"Hi, are you going to get off your kinda heavy"

"Ooh right" he was really nervous, he could feel his heart beating heavily in his chest

Toph noticed this "so Snoozles, what are you doing out so late at night shouldn't you be asleep"

"Uum well…." the truth was he woke up and noticed that she wasn't there and got worried so he went to find her. "I woke up and had to use the bathroom"

"Right, and your lying because?"

'Darn' he forgot she could tell when he was lying "Because it's a secret that's why"

"It's a secret why you are up so late?" she asked questioningly

"Yes, and why are you up so late?"

"If you must know, I couldn't sleep, I have to much on my mind right now" she wasn't sure why she added that last part.

Sokka was interested now "Really, like what"

"Like, none of your business that's what" she snapped

"Come on Toph, I'm your friend you can tell me" he said softly

"Not until you tell me why you are up so late, and no lying because it will just waste time, and I'm kind of tired"

Sokka thought about this, he really wanted to know what was on her mind so he could help her in anyway she needed, but he couldn't tell her the truth without her maybe guessing his feelings for her. He thought some more.

"Well" said Toph impatiently

It was a chance he was willing to risk, "Well, the truth is, I woke up and noticed that you weren't around so I got worried and went looking for you. And then I started thinking and I ran into you"

Toph was shocked, could he possible like her the way she liked him, he did give her a gift for no reason, and then there was that time when he had lied about his feelings about how she hadn't missed him. She just stood there with a blank look on her face.

"Toph are you ok?"

His voice brought her out of her trance "Of course I am Snoozles, and in case you hadn't noticed I can take care of myself"

"Yeah I know, I just worry is all, you are my best friend you know"

So that was it, friend, that's all she was to him, but that didn't matter to her because after all, all she ever wanted her whole life was friends. She smiled a rare occasion in her life "Do you really mean that Sokka?"

He saw her smile and she was so pretty he could hardly contain himself, he wanted so bad to tell her his feelings but held back.

"Of course I do, Katara and Aang are great but I think I like you more your not as jumpy as Aang and not as motherly as Katara. Plus your more fun to hang out with, Katara and Aang are to goody-goody they don't know how to have fun."

"Thanks"

"No problem, so what's on your mind"

"Ohh umm you know that rock you gave me I was just thinking about it is all" she lied

"Yeah, what about it"

"Well I think Katara was right its not earth, it doesn't feel the same when I bend it, it feels awkward and strange"

"Ooh so you don't like it" his heart sunk

"No, no, I like it a lot and I never got a chance to properly thank you for getting it for me"

And before she even knew what she was doing, she had walked closer and stood on her tippy toes. She gave him a light peck on the cheek, and then blushed realizing what she had done.

"Well goodnight" she said quickly and walked back to camp

Sokka just stood there with a dumb look on his face. He touched his cheek, "goodnight" he said dreamily.

**A/N- well hope you liked it, I had to watch 'Sokka's master' over again so I could get the lines just right. I don't know if I was the only one to notice it or not but doesn't Sokka look kind of hurt when Toph says that she did miss him if you don't believe me check it out there's a link in my profile, well that's all I got until next time**

**-Megi **


	4. Seperated

**A/N- First off I would like to thank my beta reader Twilight Rose2 with her help there shouldn't be any more mistakes, and darktank** **for** **giving me a good idea. Also this chapter contains some really cool action scenes (hopefully). And with out farther delay I give you…………………………….the disclaimer gasp**

**Disclaimer- if I had created Avatar it would have been for an English paper that I would have only gotten a B- on so it's a good thing I didn't**

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_And before she even knew what she was doing, she had walked closer and stood on her tippy toes. She gave him a light peck on the cheek, and then blushed realizing what she had done._

"_Well goodnight" she said quickly and walked back to camp_

_Sokka just stood there with a dumb look on his face. He touched his cheek, "goodnight" he said dreamily._

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Sokka started to walk back to camp, his mind on what had just happened

'Toph kissed me' he thought. Right now just thinking about it gave him that same feeling he had when she had been straddling him to remove that stupid, no that 'wonderful' beard, the beard that started it all. He really liked that feeling and wanted to experience it again. He made a mental note to do more nice things for Toph.**  
**

All of a sudden there was a huge explosion that came from the direction of the camp. He drew his sword and sprinted the rest of the way back. When he got there the camp was in shambles. Aang was fighting with this huge guy with a strange tattoo on his forehead, and Katara was getting up from the ground, it looked like she had been thrown backward by the explosion. Sokka scanned the area again looking for Toph but she was nowhere to be seen. There was another explosion and Aang was knocked backward and into a large rock, he looked unconscious. Katara took his place battling with the man, and Toph appeared from out of the forest.

"Where were you" Sokka asked worriedly

"Does it matter" Toph than began to throw rocks in the mans direction but he quickly made them explode with a blast from that strange tattoo of his.

Katara had a limited source of water so all she could do was throw small water spikes from the water in her canteen, but they were no match for the man who merely hit them away with his arm, which was covered in a metal glove clear up to his elbow.

Toph made the ground shake under the mans feet and he fell over backwards, when he landed Toph quickly covered his hands and feet in a layer of earth. The man broke free and fired a shot at Toph and she flew back, the ground exploding right under her feet.

Sokka watched in horror as she landed with a dull thud, she didn't get up or even move. He ran to her side as Katara continued to fight, even though it was apparent that she was exhausted. Toph was breathing but there was a huge gash on her forehead right below the hair line and it was bleeding heavily. He picked her up, she was surprisingly light and she felt fragile in his arms, and ran towards Appa. When he got there he carried her on and placed her down, he then rushed to help Aang who was groaning softly from the ground near Appa's head. He lifted him up and put him atop Appa next to Toph.

"Katara! Lets get out of hear now"

Katara ran towards Appa and barely made it on before the ground next to him exploded and sent chunks of earth fly in every direction. Appa took flight and as he gained air Sokka, who was still standing, was shook and sent flying over the side of Appa.

The fall wasn't a long one but it knocked the breath out of him. Appa started to turn back and descend.

"NO KEEP GOING IT'S TOO DANGEROUS"

He ran off into the woods and Katara steered Appa back up and away from Sokka with tears in her eyes. The man took one final shot at Appa and missed, he then began to chase after Sokka.

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The sun was rising she could feel its warmth on her cheeks. She sat up her head was pounding and she felt as if she had been hit with a sledge hammer, the birds were making way too much noise each chirp sent a jolt of pain threw her body. Then the memories of the night before ran threw her mind, the kiss, the explosion, the strange man, Aang laying motionless on the ground, a jolt of pain, and then nothing.

She observed her surroundings, she was on the ground somewhere in a small forest, Aang was on laying on the ground a few feet away, his heartbeat soft and fluttery just like always and he seemed to be asleep. She sensed someone approaching them, the footsteps were familiar and she knew who it was but something was wrong. They were slightly different, more heavy and less graceful than normal, something was wrong she knew it, where was Sokka.

"Toph, your up" Katara said coming into the camp sight. Her voice was sweet but laced with sadness, this worried Toph greatly.

"Where's Sokka?"

"He…." she began to cry the tears coming softly "He…"

"Katara what is it, what happened" Toph was really starting to get scared, what if something happened to Sokka she didn't know what she would do, she didn't know if she could take it. "Take a deep breath and tell me ok"

"Ok" she took a deep breath and continued but her voice was shaky "We were fighting and you and Aang got knocked out, so he carried you onto Appa and I ran on at the last minute, but when we were flying away he…" she stopped to sniffle and take another breath "He fell over the side of Appa" the tears were now running freely down her cheeks once more "I wanted to go back and get him but he yelled that it was to dangerous and to keep going then he ran into the woods and that guy followed him" she was sobbing uncontrollably now.

Toph felt numb on the inside she didn't know how to react to this news, part of her wanted to scream and yell at Katara telling her that she should have gone back no matter the danger, she wanted to throw rocks and cause the earth to shake until she passed out from exhaustion. But another part of her wanted to sit down and cry, to wallow in her own losses, and do nothing. But she knew none of those things would get anything accomplished, so she tried comforting Katara instead.

"It's ok Katara I'm sure he's alright, he's very smart he'll think of something" if only she could believe her own words

"You really think so"

"Of course I do, because if he doesn't I'll find him and then bury him alive for being so stupid" she joked, but inside all she felt was an icy dread.

Katara gave a small chuckle and stopped crying. She looked at Toph whose eyes betrayed the confident smile on her face, they showed all of the worry and sadness that the rest of her wasn't, and then a flash of pain graced her features and she grimaced and held her head.

"Man how hard did I hit my head"

"I healed you as best as I could but there's still a bump, your skull was cracked open and you were bleeding pretty bad, Toph, you could have died. If it wasn't for Sokka's quick action you probably would have."

"Sokka….saved me" she was stunned

"If he hadn't carried you and Aang onto Appa I wouldn't have been able to get away from that guy. And like I said I healed you as best as I could but head injuries are very complicated I was afraid that you wouldn't wake up ever again, that sometimes happens to people after getting hit in the head they go into a forever sleep until they waste away to nothing. And I was also worried because even if they do wake up sometimes they aren't right in the head, but you seem to be fine can you remember everything from the two days ago?"

"Two days ago?"

"Ooh yeah I forgot you've been knocked out for a whole day, you got knocked out not last night but the night before last and its now morning."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN A WHOLE DAY, WE HAVE TO FIND SOKKA!!" she shouted this woke up Aang.

"Toph, your up"

"Yeah yeah get Appa ready we need to go back for Sokka"

"Toph me and Sokka had a plan if any of us got separated we would go to this forest and wait for three days and if we aren't back together than we continue on with the invasion as planed whether we have everyone or not"

"But we can't just sit hear and do nothing what if he doesn't come back"

Aang put a hand on her shoulder "We can't leave what if he comes and we aren't here plus this was his idea and his ideas normally turn out to be good ones"

"Fine" she laid down and closed her eyes in defeat her head also hurt and she was really tired.

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_BOOM_

'_Just keep going'_ he thought

His legs were burning he didn't know how long he could keep this up, he had been running nonstop for the past 15 minutes and was about to collapse. But he kept on, occasionally dodging an explosion and cutting down small trees and bushes to create obstacles for the crazy man chasing him down.

_BOOM_

He fell on his face his nose making a sickeningly popping sound and bleeding profusely, but he scrambled to his feet once more and continued to run. Finally after another minute of running he could last no longer.

'_I'm not going down without a fight' _

He knew that he was about to die he could feel it in his bones. In his mind he thought of all of the people he had ever loved and cared the most about, he saw an image of Katara, her smiling face helping him threw the hard times after their mother died and caring for him when it seemed like no one else would. He saw Aang the overly hyper young boy destined to save the world, He saw Yue as beautiful as the moon shining in front of him.

'_I'll be with you soon'_

He saw Suki, her soft blue eyes piercing his own, she was training him to be a better fighter, she kissed him. Ohh how he missed her but somehow he knew that he wasn't in love with her as he had once thought.

_Love, _an image of Toph, tough and beautiful appeared before his eyes, her soft hair shining in the moonlight.

"_No, no, I like it a lot and thanks for getting it for me I never got a chance to properly thank you" _

That soft peck on the cheek he could feel it again, so nice like it had just happened.

'_I should have told her how I felt now I'll never get the chance'_

He turned sword held in front of him his body prepared to fight, but no one was there. His muscles tensed he sensed a trap and didn't lower his weapon. Suddenly a pair of strong arms grabbed him from behind and pulled him to the ground and a hand was shoved over his mouth. And he was dragged into a hole in the ground that was covered by a camouflaged trapdoor.

**A/N- My first cliffhanger wow it feels good, I should do it more often MWAHAHAHA!! Anyway hope you enjoyed this new chappy please review, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside**

**-Megi**

**P.S- I'm going to start adding like the last paragraph of the last chapter at the begging of the next one so that way you can more easily remember what happened last, I know sometimes I have to go back and read because I'm forgetful like that well enjoy! **


	5. The rescue

**A/N- I would like to thank all my reviewers here you go reviewers hands you all a cookie and especially Twilight Rose2 for being my beta reader thank you so much. and also Toph-fan101 for giveing me one of the biggest compliments ever **

**Disclaimer- I'm to lazy right now to tell you how I don't own avatar **

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_He turned sword held in front of him his body prepared to fight, but no one was there. His muscles tensed he sensed a trap and didn't lower his weapon. Suddenly a pair of strong arms grabbed him from behind and pulled him to the ground and a hand was shoved over his mouth. And he was dragged into a hole in the ground that was covered by a camouflaged trapdoor. _

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Sokka struggled against the arms holding him, it was dark underground and he couldn't see a thing.

"Sshh keep quiet" said a soft voice

Sokka stopped struggling instantly he knew that voice.

"Suki?" he whispered in surprise and relief

"Not now we don't have much time he isn't that far behind you and I wouldn't doubt that he could find the entrance to this tunnel if he looked hard enough" She lit a lantern and started running down the tunnel at top speed, Sokka fallowed close behind his strength suddenly rejuvenated.

The tunnel was about five feet wide and about 6 feet high and went on for about a mile before branching off in two directions, they ran to the left and followed that tunnel for about 200 feet, suddenly Suki stopped and Sokka ran into her back, and fell to the ground.

Suki helped him up "We're here"

In the lantern light Sokka could see a ladder leading up to a small trap door, Suki claimed up the ladder and knocked on the door.

"Who knocks at the guarded gate" asked a raspy voice

"One who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries." replied Suki quickly, the door opened and she quickly went through. Sokka started to go up the ladder but the door was shut in his face, confused Sokka just stood there breathing heavily from all of the running he had been doing, he heard muffled voices coming from behind the door.

Suddenly it was opened and an old man with a raspy voice asked "Do you have the tile?"

"Tile?"

"Yes the pai sho tile"

"You mean the white lotus that Master Piandao gave me? Yeah its in my pocket" he pulled out a bag and gave it to the man. The man looked into the bag and stepped back.

"Welcome Sokka, to the White Lotus Society"

He climbed up the ladder and into a small empty room. "We need to collapse the tunnel in case that guy followed us this far" he said still trying to catch his breath

"That will be no problem" said the man, he stomped his foot onto the ground and moved his hands down, there was a rumbling beneath them and Sokka looked threw the door and saw that the tunnel entrance was no longer there it was replaced by a stone slab.

"You're an Earthbender." Sokka stated dumbly

"Yes and your point is?" said the old man daring him to say something else.

"Sokka you must be tired from all that running, and your nose looks broken I bet that hurts a lot" said Suki in a sweet and caring voice

All of a sudden Sokka felt a wave of tiredness overcome him he was literally out of energy, he had probably run for about 45 minutes straight, and to top it all off he couldn't breath threw his nose or even feel it for that matter and his lungs were searing with pain.

"Yeah I am."

"Here let me take you to a spare room."

"Ok" he took a few steps towards her his legs felt like led and he stumbled and fell to the floor were he promptly passed out from exhaustion.

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"Do you think Toph is going to be ok Katara?, she has been sleeping an awful long "

"Don't worry Aang I'm sure her body is just really tired , plus she's probably really worried

about Sokka"

"What do you mean"

"Well its obvious how much she likes him, trust me Aang I can tell these things"

"Y-You can?"

"Of course I can easily tell when someone likes someone else, you could call it a women's intuition."  
'_does that mean she can tell that I like her, I hope not' _Aang thought panicky

"That's great Katara"

"Yeah I know it's a gift, I just wish she would hurry up and tell him already, I mean how hard could it be"

"Yeah how hard could it be" he chuckled nervously

_'Maybe I should tell her now she probably already knows' _

"Katara I..."

"Man I really have to go to the bathroom" said Toph rather loudly as soon as she woke up.

"And you're probably hungry too here I made you some stew" said Katara as she got up to dish out some stew, she didn't seem to have heard Aang speak.

"Any sign of Sokka?" asked Toph as soon as she returned from using the bathroom.

Katara handed her some stew "I'm afraid not" both her and Toph looked sullen and on the verge of tears.

"Hey cheer up you two we still have one more day to wait, you just have to keep a positive attitude. How about after Toph is done eating we do some training to help clear your minds, I saw a little stream not to far from here"

"That sounds good to me, what about you Toph?"

"Sure whatever"

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Warmth, that was the first sensation he felt upon waking up, pain was the second, his nose and face were throbbing and it felt like his legs were going to fall off at any second. He opened his eyes to get a look at his surroundings. He was laying down in a bed located in a small unfurnished room, there was a single window on the far wall and it was letting in rays of sunlight, it seemed to be about noon

_'Where am I?' _

He thought about the nights events. After he had given up hope of ever seeing his friends again he had been rescued by one of the least likely people ever.

_'Suki' _

But where was she now, how did she get to the Fire Nation of all places and why. He also thought about the others and he wondered what they were doing. He assumed that they were waiting for him at that forest about a days flight from the island there were supposed to meet up with the invasion force. Out of everyone else he thought of one person in particular.

_'I hope Toph is ok, that head injury looked pretty bad' _

_'Of course she is I'm sure Katara healed her up in no time' _

_'But what if she didn't realize that Toph was hurt until they got to the forest, that would have taken them at least two hours to get there from where we were camped' _

_'Katara's vary smart she would have checked everyone as soon as they were out of the danger zone, not waited until they landed' _

_'What if she was to busy worrying about me' _

_'Your not the only one she cares about you know' _

_'What's that supposed to mean'_

_'She likes Aang' _

_'WHAT!! no she doesn't' _

_'Yeah she does, come on you've noticed the way she looks at him' _

_'What ever I have more important things to worry about right now, if Toph is hurt I don't no what I would do' _

_'I already told you Katara will have taken care of her so stop thinking about that and concentrate on what your going to do to meet back up with everyone else, first you need to figure out where you are' _

_'But...' _

"Sokka, your awake"

He was pulled out of his thoughts as Suki entered the room. She walked across the room and sat down on the edge of his bed and he sat up.

"How are you feeling" she asked in a soft caring voice

"Well to tell you the truth I'm a little confused about how you got here and why, and what in the world is the white lotus society, I'm also worried about my friend Toph, you remember Toph right? Well she had a really bad head injury and..." he was talking really fast and was quickly interrupted by Suki.

"Sokka slow down, breath, first of all lets start with how you are feeling as in how does your legs and nose feel."

"Ohh, well my legs hurt a lot and I can't walk on them because they are so stiff, and it feels like I got hit in the face with a huge oversized hammer."

"Well your face is defiantly swollen, here" she handed him a mirror and he looked through it. His nose looked bigger than normal and was squashed over to the left and the area around it was a deep black and blue color.

"Wow that does look pretty gross"

"You still look handsome to me"

Sokka smiled "Thank you, now what is this place and how are you still alive I thought for sure Azula would kill you"

"First let me get you something to eat and some medicine it should help with you legs and nose" she left the room and Sokka's head immediately began to spin. He hadn't thought about the fact that him and Suki were still kind of together. He didn't know what to do he defiantly liked Toph as more than a friend but she was way to young for him, but he couldn't just stay with Suki knowing l that he no longer liked her in that way could he? He slumped back down on his bed. He was really confused.

**A/N- I was going to put Suki's story in this chapter but that would have taken extra long to right and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging for to long so yeah hoped you liked it please review!! Thanks muchly **

**-Megi**


	6. Suki's story

**A/N- Sorry for the long wait but I've been busy all week I had a parade to march, a concert to see, band practice, drama practice and a whole bunch of other stuff you guys probable don't care about it's now 9:28 on Saturday and I'm fighting my way threw a turkey coma (I had thanksgiving dinner with one of my friends today) to right this but good news I have along break coming up my mom is letting me stay home from school on Tuesday because its my birthday (I'm gonna be 17 yay me!!) and then I have Wednesday Thursday Friday and Monday off for thanksgiving break so I should get lots of writing done (if I'm not to busy helping prepare thanksgiving dinner) but enough about that on with the story. **

**Thanks to my beta reader Twilight Rose2 **

**Disclaimer-I don't own avatar (I bet you thought I forgot didn't you) **

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_Sokka smiled "Thank you, now what is this place and how are you still alive I thought for sure Azula would kill you" _

"_First let me get you something to eat and some medicine it should help with your legs and nose" she left the room and Sokka's head immediately began to spin. He hadn't thought about the fact that him and Suki were still kind of together. He didn't know what to do he defiantly liked Toph as more than a friend but she was way to young for him, but he couldn't just stay with Suki knowing that he no longer liked her in that way, could he? He slumped back down on his bed. He was really confused. _

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Suki came into the room carrying a steaming cup of tea and some sort of soup. She looked at Sokka who was slumped over in his bed and looked deep in thought.

"Sokka what's wrong you look worried"

He looked up and was pulled out of his thoughts instantly "Um nothing, you should just sit down and tell me everything that happened to you, I want to know how Azula got those Kyoshi warrior uniforms."

She looked at him questioningly but sat down without a word as to why he looked so worried and confused even "Here drink this" she said handing him the tea "It has medicine in it to help you heal, and you can eat this if you feel like it I'm not sure what it is though the cook here isn't the best if you know what I mean"

Sokka chuckled a little bit at her joke and took the soup from her "I thought you knew me better than that I'll eat just about anything edible"

"Yeah but I'm not entirely sure that that is edible"

"It can't be that bad" he took a sip and nearly choked, coughing he said "I stand corrected" he set the bowl down and drank the tea instead "Now, tell me this story of yours"

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They had trained really hard the rest of the day and now it was time to go to bed, Katara had immediately unrolled her sleeping bag and went to sleep, Aang had laid down and was in the process of trying to sleep but still it eluded him, and Toph, Toph hadn't even attempted sleep yet. She sat by the dying fire staring into it without actually seeing like always. Her mind was too awake to be shut down so easily, she couldn't stop worrying about Sokka no matter how hard she tried. The training session had helped a lot but as soon as it was over her mind was back on Sokka. She removed the meteor bracelet from around her forearm, she had made it from the space rock Sokka had given her. She bended it in her hands restlessly, forming random shapes and objects.

'_I hope he's alright, I don't know how long he could have kept running or if he even did, how do I know he didn't just stop and give up' _

As this thought entered her mind so did another _'because he's stronger and braver than that or else why would you like him as much as you do'_

Just then she felt a familiar set of footsteps walking her way.

"What'cha doing up so late Twinkletoes?"

"I just couldn't seem to fall asleep, I guess I'm just to worried about Sokka and Katara"

Toph looked at him "Katara? Why her?"

"Well if something were to happen to Sokka I don't know how she would deal with it you know, its like I just want to comfort her and make it alright but I can't, I feel like I can't control the things around me"

"Sometimes you can't control everything and you need to learn that you shouldn't feel the need to, some things just can't be helped"

"But if I can't even keep Sokka out of harm how am I supposed to save the world, if I can't help Katara how could anyone expect me to help the world?"

"Man your really stressed out, maybe if you told Katara how you felt about her it would help relieve some of that built up stress you have"

"W-what do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb any person with half a brain could tell how much you like her your not exactly Mr. Smooth"

"Am I that obvious?"

"Yes I'm afraid you are"

"well, does Katara know?" he hoped not.

"Nope, she remains completely oblivious."

"That's good, but what if she doesn't like me back then what?"

"She does, trust me"

"But how can you tell?"

She smiled and stood up getting ready to walk over to a spot near Appa and lay down to sleep "Ohh lets just call it a women's intuition, well good night I'm getting kind of sleepy"

She laid down and shut her eyes leaving a dumbfounded Aang to ponder over this so called 'women's intuition' and the fact that men didn't have anything like it.

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"…We were foraging for some food when one of the other warriors found traces of a huge animal fight, when I looked at some of the hair and fur littering the trail of destruction I noticed it looked a lot like Appa's. I knew you guys had lost him so I fallowed the trail and discovered him cowering fearfully in the back of a dark cave. He was very beat up, there were bore-q-pine quills embedded in his body and he was chained around the legs. He was very frightened of us and we had to get him to trust us before we could go near him. But when he finally did, we cleaned him up and you could tell that all he really wanted was to find Aang, we had planed on doing so right away but there was some trouble"

"Azula" he said her name like it was the most vile thing on the planet

"Yes, her and Mai and Ty Lee ambushed us, right away they had two of my companions down, one knocked out the other pinned to a tree. We fought valiantly, I had to scare away Appa with some fire so he wouldn't get captured but then I took up a fight against Azula, but I was no match for her firebending. Soon she had me by the throat up against a tree. I watched in horror as my comrades fell to the ground one by one at the hands of Mai and Ty Lee. Finally as the last one fell with a knife to the throat, Azula released her grip on me and I fell to the ground gasping for breath. It was horrible most of my friends were only knocked out but you could tell that a few were already dead. Azula is ruthless she wanted to know where the Avatar was and when I wouldn't tell her she started killing off my friends."

Suki stopped in her story telling and let a few tears escape her eyes. Sokka put his arms around her in a tight embrace.

"Its ok, you can stop now if you want and can tell me later, when you feel more comfortable talking about it."

"No, if I don't tell you now I never will, it's easier to keep going than it is to stop."

"Ok but only if you're sure" he pulled away from her so she could continue her story.

"I am" she took a minutes pause before continuing with her story. "finally after…after they were all gone she turned to me and said 'your friends just died for a worthless cause the Avatar will fail no matter if you tell me his whereabouts or not but if you do I will spare you and you can give your dear friends a proper burial, but if you fail to answer my one simple question I will not hesitate to make the last few hours of your life filled with pain. And you will lay here to rot. Now tell me where is the Avatar' I didn't say anything I just spit in her face I knew I was going to die and I was prepared for it"

There was another pause filled with more tears. Sokka put his hand on her shoulder.

"I know how you feel, when I was being chased by that psycho I was completely prepared to die I was going to go out with a fight. I had turned around but you grabbed me from behind before I could get a chance to fight, you saved me and for that I am thankful"

But this only made Suki cry harder "But that's just it Sokka your brave and strong I didn't even try to stop her I watched as she struck down my friends the ones closest to me. Woman that I grew up with Sokka, she killed them all and I just sat there and watched her do it" she continued to sob uncontrollably. Sokka again pulled her close and her head rested on his shoulder as she cried out all of her pain and frustrations. "And then when she turned on me I just sat there and took every punch and kick she gave me soon she started to use fire whips on my back and still I didn't try and fight back. I was broken my life ruined."

Finally after about 10 minutes she started to gain control of herself and stopped crying. When she finally spoke again her voice was very hoarse and shaky "The last thing I remember before passing out was seeing your face flash before my eyes I missed you so much and when I saw your face I wanted so bad to be with you but I knew I would never see you again"

A few tears leaked from Sokka's eyes and he looked down at her " It's ok I'm here now and I missed you too" and without thinking he lowered his head and kissed her passionately, and when she started to kiss back an image suddenly appeared in his head. It was of a girl laughing and smiling her raven hair glistening in the moonlight. He pulled away from her and suddenly felt extremely guilty.

"What's wrong Sokka?"

"Nothing I just want you to continue with your story so we can hurry up and find the others I'm sure that they're very worried about me and will be exited to finally see you again, we all thought you were dead after all" he lied

"Ok" she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before continuing her voice was still a little hoarse but it was no longer shaky. "well I blacked out and then the next thing I knew I was laying on my side in a nice warm bed, my back felt icy cold and when I reached around to touch it the whole thing was covered in bandages. When I tried to move I felt horrible pain in my back and ribs and I noticed that my chest was also covered in bandages. My head was throbbing, when someone came into the room. I tried to turn and see who it was but the pain immobilized me. And then I heard a girls voice tell me that I shouldn't try and move. I saw a girl about my age come into my line of vision she told me that I was severely burned on my back and I had a couple of broken ribs and that they had applied some sort of medicine to my back and bandaged it up so it wouldn't get infected."

" She said that her and her father had found me in the woods I was barley breathing and they thought I was going to die when they got me in a stable condition they took me to their home and her father had gone back into the woods to bury the other women that were found in the woods, he hadn't returned yet from his journey. After about 5 more hours her father got home, when he came into the room I thanked him for his kindness and told him how grateful I was for him to bury my friends. He told me to think nothing of it and said he was very sad that such an unforgivable thing could happen to such brave young woman."

"I stayed with the man and his family until I was completely healed, during that time, I told him of Kyoshi island and how I had trained to become a brave warrior. And when we heard news of the fall of Ba sing se I was devastated, there were rumors flying around that the Avatar was dead, after that I had virtually lost all hope. Then one day the man called me into the sitting room for a privet conversation, this happened about a month after I had arrived at his house and I was just about fully healed and was starting to do light training exercises, he asked me to tell him how well I knew the Avatar and his companions. By this time I had already told him about what had happened to the other warriors and my self in the woods he knew that I was protecting the Avatar's bison. So I told him stuff that had happened during your visit to Kyoshi island and at the serpents pass. He was really interested to know about you and I thought that that was weird but I told him that we were very close. Finally he asked me if I could be trusted with a very important secret, confused I told him yes. He told me that he belonged to a secret society known as the white lotus society, he told me that this society was a great one that existed before the war and included members from every nation including the fire nation. When I asked why he was telling me this he told me that the society had a mission for me if I would except it they wanted to make me a member. I asked what the mission was he said that he wasn't allowed to tell me until swore an oath to the society pledging my allegiance and secrecy. I had to think about it but soon agreed and swore the oath. After that he told me the things I would need to know to be excepted into secret meetings and stuff like that. And then we walked to a town not far from his home where he said a meeting would take place to assign me my mission."

"When we got there I found out that the Avatar was indeed alive and that you were in the fire nation non the less. I was speechless they wanted to send me over there in disguise to assist you and to offer the support of the white lotus. They want to end this war once and for all. They heard from one member in the fire nation named Piandao where you were last seen he also said that he gave you a white lotus tile in case of any emergency. I've been tracking you ever since. There where reports of seeing strange clouds heading in the direction of this forest and I used one of the tunnels used by the white lotus society to get there, I was walking down the tunnel and I heard explosions so I started to run. Then it got quiet for awhile and as I peaked threw the trap door to make sure the cost was clear I saw you running towards me and there was a man chasing you but he tripped. I was going to signal you over to me but you stopped and turned around so I had to drag you forcefully into the tunnel. I think you know the rest"

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**A/N- Again sorry for the long wait I wanted to have this posted by Tuesday but I didn't make it Ohh well its I little bit longer than all the other chapters and it was harder to write because I kept going back to make small changes to make it better and I'm still not completely satisfied with how it turned out please review and tell me what you thought and be honest don't be afraid to hurt my feelings because you won't trust me Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! **

**-Megi**


	7. Leaving without Sokka

**A/N- Ok to clarify some stuff right now so no one is confused or anything I'm going to explain the line of events. When Sokka got left behind he was rescued by Suki and passed out he woke up the very next day and had a talk with her and during this time Katara, Aang, and Toph are in a forest about a day away from the island where they are to meet the invasion force and Toph is still passed out. So basically in chapters 5 and 6 Sokka is on day one and the other are on day two. I hope I didn't confuse anyone if you have any questions just ask. **

**Thanks to my beta Twilight Rose2 **

**Disclaimer- If I owned avatar I wouldn't live in a hick town that has more cows than people in it **

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"_I was going to signal you over to me but you stopped and turned around so I had to drag you forcefully into the tunnel. I think you know the rest." _

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Sokka stared at her, his head still spinning from the kiss they had just shared and he had barely heard a word of the last part of her story. He immediately began debating with himself, one side the logical Suki loving side, the other the Toph adoring instincts side.

_Why in the world did I think of Toph at a time like that?_

_You know why don't play dumb._

_  
Yeah well, I know I like her but she's way to young it wouldn't be right_

"Sokka"

_Three years isn't that big a deal. _

_15 and 12 is too a big deal. _

"Sokka!"

_Yeah but when she's 16 you'll only be 19. _

_Well when you put it like that… _

"SOKKA!!!"

Sokka was instantly pulled out of his thoughts and was slightly confused, but made a quick recovery. "Sorry I was just thinking I guess I zoned out for a bit."

"It's ok, what were you thinking about?"

Prepared for this Sokka quickly said "Just what I'm going to do next. Do you have a map I can borrow?"

"There should be one in the hall closet, hold on I'll be right back"

As soon as she left Sokka's mind went into overdrive, _Ok no more think about Toph until I have some proper alone time. Not one more single thought. No thinking about her long silky hair and the way it just seems to sparkle and shine in the moonlight._

_Almost like Yue is telling you something..._

_Exactly! But no thinking about it right now. No thinking about when she smiles the world around her just seems to brighten up. No thinking about her wonderfully kissable looking lips._

_You want to see if they really are as kissable as they look, don't you?_

_Yes, _He sat there and imagined what it would be like to kiss Toph, his mind wandering farther into the subject he was planning on staying out of for at least another year. Until, _Darn I can't believe I let my mind wonder like that ok never again, must think about getting back to Aang so I can help with the invasion._

Just then Suki walked into the room "Here's the map, sorry it took so long it wasn't in the closet so I had to search for it."

"Huh, ooh it's ok, here spread it out on the bed."

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The first thought to enter Toph's head when she woke the next morning was _'This is the last day if Sokka doesn't show we have to leave without him'_

She was really tired, all night her dreams were haunted by the fact that she might not ever see him again. She had dreams of his death, dreams of him never being able to find them and then getting captured by the fire nation. She even had one really strange dream that involved him coming back but he was accompanied by Suki. She didn't enjoy this one very much because in it Sokka declared his undying love for Suki and they arranged to be married right after the Fire Lord was defeated.

As she stood up she got a better 'look' at her companions Aang was still asleep by Appa and Katara seemed to be standing at the far edge of camp facing away from everyone. Toph walked over to her.

"Watcha looking at sweetness?"

"Ooh nothing, I'm just waiting for Sokka, when he gets here he should be coming from this way."

In her mind Toph instantly thought, _You mean if he gets here,_ but on the outside she just nodded and stood with her. After awhile though she spoke up "Katara listen I can feel vibrations coming from a mile away and I don't feel him coming."

"What do you mean he's not coming, of course he's coming you'll see he'll be here."

"I never said he wasn't coming I just said he wasn't coming yet. Why don't you come over and start a fire and we can wait over there and get something to eat."

Katara was starting to get frazzled and snapped " No! I'm going to stay right here and wait for him no matter how long it takes!"

"Katara listen you've getting all worked up and stressed isn't going to make him get here any faster. And you need to eat something, if I remember correctly you didn't eat anything for supper last night."

"No Toph! You listen, you don't have any idea what I'm going through right now, every single day of my life he's been there for me. I haven't felt this worried since that time he was lost in the spirit world for three days, and even then it wasn't so bad because I knew where he was and that he was going to be ok as long as Aang was there to help him. But now, now I don't know if he's even alive I feel like I'm the only one that cares about him." By the time she was done saying all of this she was fuming, she glared at Toph angrily.

Toph was stunned "You think you're the only one that cares, well you aren't. I care more than any of you know" a small tear slid down the side of her face and Katara instantly lost all of her anger. "All my life I've been waiting for someone to come and take me away from my parents and all of their rules, and then Sokka showed up. And when we fly on Appa, at first I was scared to death but now as long as Sokka is near me I don't have any fears at all, he makes me feel safe..." There was now a stream of silent tears, and then Toph blushed furiously realizing what she had just admitted.

"Oh Toph, I'm so sorry I didn't mean that, I'm sure everyone misses him just as much as me." Katara walked closer to Toph and hugged her, her motherly senses taking control of her actions.

Toph still had tears coming from her eyes as she hugged back, no matter how hard she tried to stop them they just wouldn't. They were being fueled by the one thought that had been plaguing her ever sense she woke up from being passed out, _What if Sokka doesn't come back. _She gently starting to cry a little bit harder and all of her emotions and thoughts were threatening to burst forth from her mouth. Finally she could stand it no longer "Katara, what if he doesn't come back? What if I never get to see him? What if…what if I never get a chance to tell him how I feel?" she wanted to ask so much more but she couldn't, all of the crying was starting to make it difficult to talk and her throat had a huge lump in it. She couldn't ever remember crying like this in her whole entire life, and she felt weak because she had let herself start to feel this much for one person.

Katara looked down at the young girl, she was shocked she had never even thought in a million years that Toph would let herself cry like this. She was normally so tough, and strong, and independent, and here she was crying like the twelve year old she was, depending on someone else for comfort and strength. She wanted so bad to tell her that every thing was going to be all right, but she just couldn't. It would just make things harder, and she didn't think she could say something if she herself didn't believe it. So instead she just let a few tears run down her cheeks and said "I don't know Toph, I just don't know."

It was this seen that Aang awoke too. He watch his two friends crying in each other arms and made up his mind, he wasn't going think about Sokka right now, he wasn't going to think of anything except defeating the Fire Lord. He took a deep breath and forced all of his emotions behind a rock wall. Now was the time for action not emotion. He got up and started making breakfast. By the time he was done Katara and Toph had stopped crying and were sitting by the fire looking extremely glum.

"Here, eat this we're all going to need lots of strength for the invasion in two days. Also I've been thinking about that and it's going to take us at least a day to reach the island to meet up with the invasion force right. Well with all that flying it doesn't give us anytime to rest once we get there, And I was thinking we should leave right now."

Katara jumped up immediately "WHAT!!! No way!!! We have to stay here and wait for Sokka." Toph just sat there and said nothing.

"Come on Katara be reasonable we don't have time to sit here and wait we're on a schedule, the world is depending on us." he took her hands, "Sokka would want us to keep going."

"But Aang…"

"Katara, Aang is right I don't want to leave any more than you do but we have to. It is what Sokka would do." she stood up and dropped her bowl of porridge "Come on I'm not hungry let's just go now and get it over with."

They all agreed and soon had Appa all loaded up, and were flying towards their destination. Toph leaned over the side, pretending that she could see the trees speeding below them.

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After carefully looking over the map Sokka had an action plan. After explaining the whole plan to Suki they agreed to set off. Sokka gingerly stood up testing his legs.

"Wow! Whatever was in that tea really did the trick all I need now is a good stretch and I think I could walk all day!"

Suki smiled "Well that's good because you're going to have to."

Sokka just groaned.

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**A/N-And that's all she wrote.  
Until next time remember to review please and thank you. **

**-Megi**


	8. A delay of plans

**A/N- OMG did you guys see DoBS it was simply amazing I watched it like 4 times already anyway on with what you're really here to read…**

There is a dream sequence in this chappy its in italics and says Sokka's dream I know your saying why is she telling us this if it clearly says Sokka's dream above it. Well the reason is that some people aren't very observant.

Thanks to Twilight Rose2 for being awesome and betaing

Disclaimer- Sadly Avatar is to cool to be owned be me

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_"Wow whatever was in that tea really did the trick! All I need now is a good stretch and I think I could walk all day." _

Suki smiled "Well that's good because you're going to have to."  
  
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"I hate walking, I never thought I would miss Appa so much!"

"Oh stop complaining it's only been an hour since we left."

"Only an hour?!"

"About an hour yeah, maybe a little more."

Sokka groaned "This is going to be a long trip, we have to make it to docks before tomorrow night if we want to get there in time."

Suki looked mischievous "Well then you better stop complaining and hurry up." she hit him lightly on the shoulder with an exclamation of, "Tag! You're it" and then took off running forwards, laughing the whole time.

"Not for long I'm not!" he shouted before chasing after her. He was gaining distance and was about to tackle her to the ground when his little voice of reason popped up.

_'What do you think you're doing?'_

_'What does it look like, I'm having fun'_

_'You're flirting.' The inside voice scolded_

_'Oh crap you're right'_

He stopped running and Suki noticed and stopped also, "Sokka what's wrong?"

"Nothing I just think we should save our energy. We have a long day of walking ahead of us, and than more walking tomorrow."

Suki looked slightly crestfallen "Yeah you're right…"

They continued to walk in silence. Sokka found himself thinking again. It seemed like he was always thinking, he was the idea guy it was his job to be always coming up with new plans. And right now the plan was what to do about the Toph vs. Suki battle raging inside his head. He was helplessly confused at this point, he didn't think it right to continue his relationship with Suki if he didn't have any feelings for her. But he also didn't want to tell her he had no feelings for her. And he especially didn't want to tell her he had feelings for Toph. But another part of him knew that he needed to tell her these things so that they could move on.

Suki couldn't take the silence anymore "So Sokka, you never told me what you did after we separated."

"Oh, we went to Ba Sing Se, found Appa, Aang got hit with lightning, we joined up with my dad, and then captured a Fire Nation ship and went to the Fire Nation."

There was silence again. It lasted for about ten minutes before Suki spoke up. "Well what did you do once you got to the Fire Nation?"

"Well we got disguises, and then Aang joined some Fire Nation school to learn more about the Fire Lord and what not, and then for some strange reason he decided it would be fun to throw a dance party. And you know what happened at this dance party, Aang and my sister danced, it was amazing. I didn't now Katara could move like that, and if I didn't know better I'd say there was something going on between those two. Me and Toph just kind of hung back, I was going to ask her to dance but she probably would have earthbended the crap out of me." he laughed he didn't know why but the memory amused him greatly. And then he stopped laughing, _'should I have said that last part about Toph? That won't make her suspicious of my feelings will it?'_

"Umm anyway, after that I got a sword master to teach me, but you probably already knew that didn't you?"

"Yeah, he is a member of the White Lotus Society"

The rest of the day went by in pretty much the same fashion, Suki trying to make small talk and Sokka not really paying attention. Finally it was time to rest for the night.

"Well Suki, I'm kind of tired, there's the fire and we have food you can cook if your hungry, but I'm going to go to bed over there, goodnight." he said this in a kind of awkward rush and walked over to the far side of camp to lay down.

"But Sokka, aren't you hungry?"

"No, I'm just really tired." of course this was a huge lie, he was starving and not the least bit tired.

"Well," said Suki walking closer to him, "I hope you're not to tired for a kiss goodnight" with her lips slightly puckered she leaned in for a kiss. Sokka lightly kissed her on the cheek, his lips barley coming into contact with her skin.

"Well, goodnight" he yawned and lay down. After about 10 minutes he started to snore. He wasn't really sleeping though it was just an act. But then after about an hour he slipped into dreams.

_------------------------------------------Sokka's dream----------------------------------------------  
"Sokka aren't you a little nervous?" _

"Are you kidding me Aang, I'm just getting married why should I be nervous. Marriage will be a piece of cake. Speaking of cake I can't wait for the reception."

"Wow you're sure are confident. When I got married I was a huge snowball of nerves. Well good luck I have to go check on Katara the doctor said she shouldn't be up and about this late in her pregnancy, but you know how she is."

Sokka laughed "Yeah I know what you mean" As soon as Aang left Sokka started pacing and worrying. He wasn't as confident as he acted in front of his close friend; in fact he was as nervous as any one man possibly could be.

------------------------------------------Skip ahead--------------------------------------------------

A young girl of about two played in the front yard of a beautiful earth kingdom home with her father. She had pale skin, brown hair, and shockingly blue eyes.

"Sokka!" a female voice rang out into the cool evening air, "Could you run into town for me, I just got a really strong craving for watermelon, and we don't have any"

"But I just got back from town with those pickles you wanted!" he complained.

"Watermelon or I'll Earthbend you into the ground!" she smiled at him and he just couldn't resist that wonderful smile of hers, or the threat for that matter.

"Ok, I'll be back in about 20 minutes I promise. Come on Aneko do you want to go on a little trip with daddy?" he asked the young girl sweetly.

"No, I want to stay here with mommy."

------------------------------------------End dream-------------------------------------------------- 

Sokka awoke with a start, and he couldn't figure out what had waked him up so suddenly. He had been having the most interesting dream ever, he had been married but to whom he couldn't tell because he was never close enough to get a good look at her face but her voice sounded so familiar. It was weird and he wondered briefly if it was some kind of premonition. But he was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard a voice calling his name it sounded familiar also "Sokka wake up we need to get moving"

Sokka sat up and scanned his surroundings. He was still in his camp and it was still very early in the morning, the suns rays were just barely peaking out over the horizon.

"Here I got up early and made porridge, you can eat and I'll pack up camp." Suki handed him his bowl and proceeded to pack up all stray belongings.

Sokka started to eat not giving that strange dream another thought. When he was done they set off. At about noon when the sun was high above their heads they stopped for lunch.

"So Sokka, we sure are making good time?"

"Yeah I guess so…"

"When do you think we'll get there?"

"Well if all goes according to plan then we should arrive at the docks later this evening, and then get there by tomorrow at noon."

The rest of lunch was eaten in silence. Soon they were on the move again. After about an hour of walking the land suddenly dipped. They could see the harbor far below them at the bottom of the steep hill.

"Ok looks like all we have to do is climb down this hill and we're out of the woods."

"Come on lets go and be careful we can't afford any delays" replied Sokka walking past Suki and starting his slow decent. Suki followed after him.

As she walked down she thought of Sokka. He was acting so strange and she wanted to ask him about it, but could tell that now was not the time, maybe later that night once they made it to the boat. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice the rock jutting up from the ground, and she tripped over it. She was thrown forward landing heavily on her stomach but kept tumbling forward. As she continued to gain speed, her whole world a huge blur before her eyes, she was again thrown into the air and when she landed this time it was on her ankle. It gave a loud crack and she felt a searing pain, but there was nothing that she could do as she continued to roll to the bottom of the steep hill. Finally she came to an abrupt halt as her feet collided with a large tree she felt her injured ankle give another crack and felt a stabbing pain in her ankle.

Sokka saw it all happen in slow motion. And finally when she stopped he rushed down after her, careful not to trip himself.

"Suki!" when he got to her, her breathing was coming in shallow gasps. "Are you hurt?"

"Ankle." she gasped

Sokka looked down and noticed that her left foot was turned at a sever angle, and on closer inspection he could actually see part of her anklebone sticking out of the skin.

"It's going to be alright Suki, just take deep breaths. Try to calm down we don't want you going into shock" he said this calmly but in his mind he was screaming his head off. He had to act fast; he quickly pulled his shoulder cover off and wrapped it loosely around her wound to prevent any dirt from getting inside. Next he opened up his pack to retrieve some basic medical supplies. He had some kind of cream _'no good'_ he tossed the small jar behind him. Next he found some wrappings and set those aside for later, then he found what he was looking for.

"Here Suki, eat this it will help with pain" he handed her some dried out plant material "I know your supposed to make it into a tea but we don't have time for that"

Sokka scanned his surroundings, there wasn't any loose wood around and he needed to make a splint. 'Think Sokka think, oh I got it' he pulled out his sword ant started to cut off one of the lower branches of the tree. Once that was done he quickly rushed back to Suki, who was now sweating profusely. He quickly removed the tie from around his waste, and then he grabbed the wrapping from the medical kit and wrapped them around Suki's leg, foot, and ankle, to provide a cushion for the splint. He then placed the branch up against her leg letting it extend past her foot and he then cut his waste tie in half and used it to tie the branch to her leg.

Suddenly Sokka heard a retching sound and looked over to find that Suki had just vomited everywhere. He looked closely at her face, her skin was pale and clammy and she was shivering. He quickly checked her pulse; it was beating very fast beneath his fingertips.

Realization hit him hard _'She's going into shock!'_ he needed to improve circulation so he quickly loosened her belt and removed the arm bands she was wearing, then dragged a large rock over and used it to elevate her legs.

"Sokka I'm thirsty, and cold," her voice sounded so weak to his ears.

"I'm sorry I can't give you any water, but here." he removed his shirt and wrapped it around her body. Then he lay down next to her and hugged her close. "Don't worry Suki everything is going to be all right. I won't let anything happen to you ever, I promise."

**A/N- YAY!! For snow days!!! Anyway hope you liked this chapter a had a lot of fun writing it. Please review and tell me what you think you could even give predictions on what you think will happen. But only I know that and I'm not telling….yet. And just to give you a heads up this fic is only going to have 10 chapters so I fear it is coming to an end tear  
Well see you in about a week  
-Megi  
**


	9. Telling Suki

**A/N-Thank you reviewers I love you all so much. Now I give you chapter 9 **

**Thanks to Twilight Rose2 **

**Disclaimer- Maybe if I say it enough it will come true under breath, I own avatar nope still not true must keep trying**

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"_I'm sorry I can't give you any water, but here." he removed his shirt and wrapped it around her body. Then he laid down next to her and hugged her close to him. _

"_Don't worry Suki everything is going to be all right. I won't let anything happen to you ever, I promise." _

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It was completely dark before Sokka thought it safe to continue. Suki had fallen asleep on the ground. He stood up to look towards the docks and figured that it would be really late before he made it there. With a great sigh he leaned over and scooped Suki into his arms carrying her bridal style down the hill.

In the dark he would occasionally stumble or slide, but he kept going he needed to get Suki medical attention fast or her ankle could be permanently damaged. His legs, back and arms began to burn and ach from the effort used to carry Suki. But still he kept going, no matter what he needed to continue.

For the first time since being separated his thoughts weren't on Toph, or on his feelings about the young earth bender, he wasn't even thinking about his feelings towards Suki. No, right now his thoughts were on his sister. Oh how he wished Katara was with him. She would have been able to heal Suki's ankle in a second. He missed her so much and he silently cursed himself for not thinking about her once since being separated, especially considering that he was probably the only thing she thought of.

He was now on level ground. It should only be about an hour before he got to the docks. Suki stirred in his arms, groaned and opened her eyes. Sokka looked down at her. Her stunning blue eyes stared up at him.

"Sokka? What's going on?" her voice was soft and sounded tired, like that of someone who just woke up from a very deep sleep.

"Well I have to get you medical attention fast so I decided to carry you down the hill."

"Ohh well, I feel much better now you can let me walk."

"Umm I don't think that's a very good idea." he hesitated.

"Why? What happened?" it was then that she realized that she couldn't feel anything past her left ankle.

"Well, when you fell you sort of broke your ankle. I could see the bone poking out from your skin."

Her stomach sank and she became frenzied "Sokka quick put me down I need you to check my foot I can't feel it"

"Relax I've checked practically ever five minutes. I can still feel a strong pulse, you'll be fine. Its probably just the pain medication taking effect on you."

She breathed a sigh of relief "Thank you so much Sokka, I don't know what I would do without you" she was leaning up to kiss him when he suddenly turned his head to the side and coughed violently. Not buying this fake cough for one second Suki asked "Sokka what's wrong? You've been acting so distant with me" she sounded a little mad, or maybe just frustrated. Sokka couldn't tell.

"It's nothing Suki, I'll tell you later I promise as soon as we get to the boat, ok"

"Why not now?" she wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head against his bare chest.

"Well because what I'm going to say is really important and I just want to work it out in my head first"

"Ok" she closed her eyes and was asleep in minutes.

As he walked Sokka prepared himself for what he was going to say. Mentally running lines through his head. He needed to know exactly what to say, he didn't want to just stammer through this it was too important to mess up just because he said something stupid at the wrong time.

Finally Sokka arrived in the town. Everything was dark and deserted. The air around him was chilly and sent shivers down his spine. He went through the town looking left and right, as if he was about to be ambushed. But he didn't see a soul.

He reached the dock and could see a lantern shining in a boat tied to the dock. In the lamp light he could see a piece of paper attached to the boat. He gently placed Suki in the boat, careful not to wake her, and picked up the paper. On it was a beautiful drawing of a white lotus tile.

He pocketed the drawing and climbed into the boat himself. There was a small motor attached to the back end of the boat. Sokka wasn't sure how it worked but had confidence that he could figure it out in no time.

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The flight lasted all day and night. It was long and silent, everyone to caught up in their own thoughts to say anything. When they finally landed on the island where they were to meet up with the invasion force Appa was exhausted and fell right to sleep. Sleep he would need the next day if they expected to win the invasion.

"That's right buddy rest up, you'll need it." Aang patted Appa's side and then walked over to Katara. The early morning sun was just rising over the horizon and it gave her face an attractive glow.

The whole flight he had prepared himself for this moment, thought out every word carefully. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak. "Katara, can I talk to you for a minute? Privately" he glanced over at Toph who was sitting next to Katara, her face was expressionless.

She just sat there for a minute with both Katara and Aang staring at her. Then suddenly she said in a very sarcastic voice. "Ooh, you want me to leave. I get it now " she smirked and stood up. Aang's heart was beating rapidly in his chest, she had a feeling she knew what he was going to say to Katara. As she walked past him she whispered "Not now, lover boy" he gave her a look as if to ask why, but of course she couldn't see it and just kept walking.

As soon as she was gone Katara spoke up, "So what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

"Ohh, I just wanted to talk about Sokka" Katara's face dropped. "I know how much he means to you. And I know what you must be going through right now. But I promise you Katara, that I will do everything in my power to find him, as soon as I defeat the fire lord tomorrow. I won't rest until we have him back with us."

Katara looked into Aang's stormy gray eyes and knew what he said was the truth. "Ohh Aang" she threw her arms around him and held him in a tight embrace.

"I just ask for one thing in return" she pulled away to look at him. He smiled "Just don't worry about him to much today, ok. You need to rest so you can be strong for tomorrow"

"Ok, but why couldn't you have said that in front of Toph? She needs to hear that same advise."

"I don't know" he lied "Well you know what I'm going to go tell her right now"

He got up and started to find Toph. He heard crashes coming from the other side of the island, and guessed that she must be training over there. When he reached her he saw that she was practicing her aim. She had body sized pillars of earth sticking up from the ground in random places and was throwing small rocks at them.

She had sensed his approach, and threw a rock in his direction he effortlessly avoided it. "Hey Toph! Can I ask you something?"

"You just did, airhead."

"No, I mean, why shouldn't I have told Katara my feelings right now?"

"Well she is in the middle of worrying about her brother who could be dead. I just don't think that that's the best situation."

"Yeah I guess you're right." he looked down at the ground

"But don't worry when the time is right you'll know."

"Ok, but will you do me a favor Toph?"

"Sure thing."

"Don't stay out here training all day. You need to rest for tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok, I guess..."

Aang walked back to camp. Toph could feel his footsteps getting farther and farther away. She continued to train, she needed something to keep her mind off of Sokka. Finally when she could feel the heat from the suns rays burning high above her head she decided to take a brake.

She sat there in silence, but despite her efforts to stop them, her thoughts traveled to Sokka. She missed him so much. She wished he was here to tell her funny stories and entertain her, she was so bored.

As she sat she noticed a pair of footsteps approach her, but thought nothing of it. Until it registered who they belonged to.

'_No, it couldn't be' _

She bolted up from her sitting position and started running towards the vibrations.

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There were tinges of pink spread about the horizon by the time Sokka finally figured out how to start the stupid motor. And when it did the noise awoke Suki.

"Sokka, my ankle is starting to hurt again do you have anymore medication?"

"Yeah hold on, I'll make you a tea."

He set about making tea. The boat was small but it had a place where you could make a small cooking fire and seated about three comfortably. When he was done he handed her the cup.

"Here this should help with the pain"

"Thank you Sokka, for everything" she took a sip of her tea, and let the hot liquid drain down her throat. "Now tell me why you've been acting so strange. I want to help you." she gave him a deep caring look.

Sokka was really tired, he had been up all night walking and now all he wanted was to sleep. But he needed to get this over with, it was now or never. He looked Suki in the eye and began.

"Look I don't really know how to put this but I'm just going to say it." he took a deep breath "Suki, I don't think we can be together anymore." Suki looked like she was about to interrupt before Sokka said "Please don't interrupt I want to get this all out in the open. I really do like you I swear its just I don't like you in that way. I just…I think its because I don't really know you that well. We've only been together for a few days all together and…and" he stopped now was the really hard part "And I think I've grown to like someone else" he glanced at her and saw that her expression was surprisingly blank. He took that as a sign that it was safe to continue "This girl I've lived with her everyday for the last few months, I've really gotten to know her. I know her dreams and hopes and fears. I even know some stuff about her that she dosen't even know. Like the fact that when she gets older she will be the most beautiful women ever. And that even though she pretends not to care she really is one of the most caring people I have ever met. And this whole situation has got me so confused, I don't know what I should do. Is it wrong of me to like someone so young?"

The breakup had evolved into so much more, Sokka was looking for advise and guidance he needed it. Suki looked up at him tears streaming in her eyes.

"Well I can't say I'm happy about it but, I am glad you told me. We couldn't have lived forever like that. And about that girl, my grandpa used to tell me that age is just a number when it comes to matters of the heart. And I can tell how much you must like her she's very lucky. And I still like and want you to be happy." more tears "Sokka I need to be alone right now."

Sokka laughed "Well I don't think that…"

"Sokka please." Suki voice was raspy and little sniffles came from her shaking frame.

"Ok I'll do my best." he said with all honesty

He scooted over to the far side of the boat putting about three feet in between them. That was as alone as Suki would get right now. An awkward silence filled the air between them. Suki was trying desperately to hold in her tears but some still escaped. Soon Sokka was asleep the events of the day and night before taking their toll on his body.

When he awoke it was completely dark out and Suki was quietly snoozing in the small boat next to him.

'_Must have slept all day. I wonder what woke me up?" _

Then he noticed it, the silence encompassing his body in a dark cocoon. He went to the motor and saw that he was completely out of fuel.

'_Aww man'. _

This would mean rowing the rest of the way taking up the rest of the precious time they had left. But one problem with that is he had no way of knowing if he was still pointed in the right direction.

He picked up the ores that were stored under the seats of the boat.

'_Well it's better to move than to just sit here, I just hope I'm going the right way.' _

He started to row and row and row. Minutes turned to hours and soon the sun was rising on the horizon. Finally with the sun burning high above him he spotted land on the horizon. He rowed faster his arms burning with effort.

"Suki. Land." his voice was dry from lack of food and the exercise.

He didn't bother to tell her it might not even be the right island that wasn't important right now.

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**A/N- OMG what's going to happen…Ohh wait I already know the answer to that. Please review **

**-Megi**


	10. Reunited

**A/N-Okay I know I said that this was only going to have 10 chapters but I was suddenly struck with an amazing idea so now it will be longer. Also sorry for the long wait but my Internet broke and I couldn't get on for a long time and then I started slacking off with my writing and with Christmas and all. Please don't kill me (hides under couch)**

**Thanks to Twilight Rose2 for betaing**

**Disclaimer- Christmas has come and gone and I still don't own Avatar**

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_He started to row and row and row. Minutes turned to hours and soon the sun was rising on the horizon. Finally with the sun burning high above him he spotted land on the horizon. He rowed faster his arms burning with effort._

"_Suki. Land." his voice was dry from lack of food and the exercise._

_He didn't bother to tell her it might not even be the right island that wasn't important right now._

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There was small jolt and the sound of wet sand scraping the bottom of the boat as it ran aground on the shore of the unidentified island. Sokka scooped Suki up in his arms and placed her on the wet sandy shore.

"I'm not sure where we are exactly because we both sort of fell asleep and no one was steering and well this is where we ended up." he glanced at her waiting for some sort of anger or emotion but there wasn't any. She just stared out to sea her back facing him, so he couldn't se her face. "Well I'm going to see if I can find any help okay, I'll be back in no time I promise," no answer, "Suki if you…."

"Sokka! Just go!" her voice sounded a little bit angry but mostly it sounded hurt.

"Okay."

He started his trek across the island, soon coming to an incline in land, and started to climb up it. He couldn't see what was on top of the hill, so it was his to his great surprise when he felt something collide full force into his stomach, when he reached the top.

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She was running as fast as her legs could carry her, hardly believing her own feet, surely they had to be deceiving her, Sokka couldn't be here. But then she got closer and could feel his heartbeat and knew that it wasn't in her mind, he was actually here. She collided with his midsection and wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug, momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to act tough and uncaring.

Sokka looked down at the person now attempting to squeeze the life out of him, and was shocked to see Toph. He instantly forgot about Suki's plight as relief flooded his body. Katara had healed her up, she was alright, the only thing he noticed of the head injury was a small bump but that was perfectly alright with him. He examined the rest of her and couldn't believe his eyes she seemed to have grown even more beautiful in the few day they were apart. He was pulled out of these thoughts when Toph stopped hugging him and much to his surprise started yelling.

"I should earthbend you clear into next year, Meathead! Do you have any idea the kind of worry you put Katara through!? I had to put up with her crying and short temper! Do you have any idea what that's like?" she smiled "And I might have missed you a little bit also." her voice was soft and her head was facing the ground effectively hiding the small blush that had crept onto her face.

Toph was taken by surprise as she felt Sokka pull her into a much more gentle hug than the one she had given him. She decided that it would be okay to hug him back, but just for a little bit. As she hugged him she relished his scent, and the feel of his bare skin against her cheek.

_Wait, bare skin!_ she pulled away, blushing even more. "Umm Sokka, what happened to your shirt?"

He suddenly remembered Suki. "Oh crap! It's a long story Toph but right now I have an emergency. Where is Katara, Suki needs medical attention fast."

"Suki?"

"Yes Suki."

"But where…"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later, but please I need Katara."

Toph vaguely pointed, "Over there."

"Thanks Toph." he said before rushing off.

Toph just stood there to stunned to move. How could Suki possibly have gotten to the fire nation and found Sokka? It was an impossible notion and yet somehow it was true. She was glad Suki was alive, but she was just starting to think that maybe her and Sokka had a chance and then this happens. She even kissed him and she was sure she felt him give a happy and joyful reaction to that kiss. Now she would have to sit back and watch as Sokka and Suki got closer and closer, Sokka never to know how much he had hurt her. She walked away to be by herself she needed time to collect her thoughts and hide her emotions.

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"Sokka!" Katara screamed and rushed over to him. She had tears streaming from her eyes as she hugged him close. "I missed you so much, how did you get here? And what happened to your face?" she asked referring to his most likely broken nose

"I missed you too and I'll explain everything later but right now Suki needs serious medical attention."

"Suk….Ahh."

Sokka pulled her forward as he ran back to the beach where he left Suki. As he ran past the spot where he met up with Toph he briefly wondered where she went.

_'Maybe she went to go help Suki'_

_**'I hope not that would be awkward don't you think?' **_

But these thoughts soon passed as he scrambled down the hill nearly tripping and reached Suki, who was laying on her back in the sand. Katara immediately rushed to her side while Sokka hung back.

"It's my left ankle and please be careful the pain medication has completely worn off and it hurts really bad."

"I'll be careful," Katara pulled water out of her trusty water skin and bent over to closely examine Suki's ankle. She removed the splint and other wrappings from around the injury, and saw the sever open fracture. She gasped "Sokka how did this happen?" she went right to work on healing her with out waiting for Sokka to answer.

"Well we were going down a steep hill and she tripped and rolled down the hill and then hit a tree. When I got to her, her ankle was like that so I had to splint it but then she went into shock. I had to help her calm down and get her back to normal before we could continue. When we did I carried her all the way to the docks."

"Wow that sounds horrible. It's a good thing you have Sokka around to protect you," she said addressing Suki.

"Yeah, good thing." a small tear slipped out from her eyes unnoticed by Katara. Sokka saw this and it made him wonder how much he had hurt her, it made him feel bad and he almost regretted what he had done. He also saw how Suki was making a point to not meet his gaze or to even look in his direction. She must also be mad he concluded.

After about 30 minutes Katara stood up. "Well that's all I could do right now, it was very serious and there may be permanent damage. I'm not sure only time will tell. You won't be able to fight with us tomorrow you'll have to stay here and we'll come back and get you."

"Okay."

"Sokka and I will help you to our camp and I'll make you some tea and lunch, you guys must be exhausted, and you'll have to fill me in on exactly what happened okay?"

Sokka slowly walked over to Suki and put his arm out to help her up. She didn't even glance at him.

"I think I can take care of myself Sokka." she stated huffily. Sokka withdrew his arm and backed away without a word, Katara watched this interaction with interest. Suki seemed to be mad at Sokka for something and she wondered what could have happened. Suki slowly stood up and gently placed weight on her injured ankle. She took one limping step forward and then another, her face contorted with discomfort.

"Suki you really shouldn't be walking on that foot so soon after being healed. Why don't you let me and Sokka help you?"

"I guess your right." she said defeated Katara and Sokka stood on either side of her and she placed her arms over their shoulders. They walked all the way back to camp in silence. When they reached camp they saw Aang absently airbending a leaf into the air. When he saw them approach he immediately jumped to his feet.

"Sokka! Suki! When di…how... Bu..." he stuttered unable to collect his thoughts.

"We'll explain every thing in a minute. But first I'm hungry." Sokka and Katara gently placed Suki on the ground. And then Sokka went immediately to the pile of bags and blankets, after a minute of searching he pulled out a small bag containing lumps of jerky, sat down and started to munch on them. He offered some to Suki who was sitting across from him.

"I don't want any of your jerky Sokka." she still seemed mad.

"Okay just thought I would offer." Sokka was trying to be civil to her but she was making it increasingly difficult. How were they supposed to get over this break up and continue being friends if she was acting this way?

"How about I make some tea? I think we have enough ingredients for a vegetable stew I could have that ready to eat in an hour." said Katara effectively stopping the glare that Sokka was shooting Suki, who in turn was not bothering to look his way but instead had her head turned to the side with a very sour look on her face.

"Sure whatever. Hey have you guys seen Toph? She sort of disappeared after I went to get Katara." asked Sokka in what he hoped was an offhand voice. Unfortunately Suki saw through this and immediately got angry.

"So is that why you took so long to come back with help? You had to stop and talk with _Toph_ while I was laying on the beach in pain."

"We didn't talk that much we mostly hugged."

Suki scoffed in indignation, "Like that's any better…"

Sokka's anger was rising he stood up, with his voice slowly rising he said "What? I'm not allowed to hug someone whom I've missed and worried about for four days?"

Attempting disarm the situation Katara quickly spoke up taking a step towards Sokka "How about you let me heal your nose it looks broken."

But no one was paying attention to her, they were both staring daggers at each other.

"Well if you missed her and care about her so much why don't you go find her, then you two can spend all your time together!"

"You know what maybe I will! Come on Aang." He grabbed the Airbender's arm and pulled him to his feet, dragging him out of camp. Once they were out of earshot he exploded "Can you believe her Aang? She's being impossible!"

"Did you two have a fight?"

"No, why would you say that?" he answered calming down.

"Gee I don't know." he said sarcasm dripping from every word "I just figured that since you two were practically ripping out each other throats that maybe you might have fought, I mean normal people don't normally do that with out reason you know."

Sokka sighed and looked at the ground "Well maybe there was a reason besides fighting"

"Really, like what?" he asked curiously.

"Imighthavemaybebrokenup with her." he mumbled

"What? I didn't quite catch that."

"I broke up with her!" he shouted

"What? Why?"

"Why do most people break up Aang? It's because I don't like her in that way anymore."

"Wait when did this happen? When you heard the Kyoshi warriors were in Ba Sing Se you were practically hopping with joy. And according to Katara when you found out it was Azula in disguise you were so worried about Suki maybe being dead you were depressed for like two weeks."

It took Sokka a minute to respond and when he did he spoke like he was choosing his words very carefully, "I don't know. It's just that I started thinking of her less and less, and I accepted that she was probably dead. And then other stuff happened and when she showed up so suddenly I knew that I didn't like her in that way anymore. But I still like her as a friend and she's acting so angry and mean. All I want is to be friends but I don't know if we can or not."

"Well I don't think I'm the best person to be giving you advice. If truth be told I'm sort of having lady problems myself." He smiled sheepishly

_'He better not be talking about my sister'_

_**'But if he's not talking about Katara then he has to be taking about Toph' **_He reasoned with himself.

_'Good point. He better be talking about Katara' _he glanced darkly at Aang, which he didn't notice.

"So why did I have to come with you to find Toph anyway?"

"Well…." Sokka wasn't sure why he dragged Aang along. He just didn't want to be alone with Toph just yet. "I guess I just needed someone to rant to."

"Oh, Okay."

They continued their walk in a content silence.

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"So what happened between you and Sokka?" Asked Katara from the cooking fire. She was adding ingredients to the vegetable stew that was slowly cooking in a pot hung over the fire.

"He..." She took a deep breath to steady her voice, "He broke up with me."

"He what!?" Katara dropped what she was doing and walked over to the sniffling girl and put a comforting hand over her shoulder. "Did he say why?"

"He said…" A few tears and another deep breath, "That he didn't like me in that way anymore and that…" sniffling and an involuntary sob, "That he liked someone else."

"Ohh" Katara had a feeling that Sokka liked Toph but now she had proof. Who else could Sokka be talking about? "Well you know Suki, you'll find someone else I'm sure. I honestly don't know what you see in my brother anyway, he's rude, sarcastic, he smells funny, and can be very annoying."

"Yeah but he's also brave and smart and funny and good looking." Suki was now bawling all over Katara's shoulder.

"Just let it all out." she patted Suki's back in a comforting manner.

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_Stupid Suki,_ Toph punched the ground causing small cracks to appear in the earth beneath her fist. _Why did she have to show up and ruin everything?_

She sat down on the ground in defeat. _But then what really did she ruin? Its not like Sokka was going to instantly fall in love with me and whisk me off my feet to some unknown land far from my parents. No that's a stupid thought he obviously loves Suki and they will get married as soon as possible. After tomorrow when we defeat the fire lord its straight back to Gaoling for me anyway. I probably won't get to see him or Aang and Katara ever again._ a small tear escaped from her eye, as she felt footsteps approach her. It was Sokka and Aang; she quickly jumped to her feet and got in her earthbending stance, so that way it would appear like she was doing something useful.

"Hey Toph!" Sokka shouted from about twenty feet away. Toph heard him and noted that his voice still sounded a little funny, she had noticed this earlier when they had first met up but never got a chance to ask him about it. For some reason just hearing him right now filled her with anger she didn't quite understand. She slammed her foot into the ground causing a rock to jut up from the ground in front of the warrior's feet making him trip and land on his face. Toph let out a hearty laugh pretending to be amused rather than angry which is how she felt at the moment. But she stopped as soon as she heard him yell in sever pain, normally he just grumbled and got back to his feet when she tripped him. Aang rushed to Sokka's side to help him up.

He stood clutching his face. "What did you do that for?" he shouted angrily.

"Thought it would be amusing but I didn't know you were going to get all angry. What did you do scrap your knee?" she said nonchalantly.

"No. For your information Toph." he said speaking through his hands, which were still covering his nose. There was blood seeping through his fingers. "I fell on my face. Which just so happens to have a broken nose on it?" he said heatedly

Toph instantly dropped her attitude, her face changing from one of uncaring aloofness to that of deep concern. "Oh I'm sorry I had no idea. Are you okay?" her tone was soft and gentle, though

Sokka looked at Toph she is so cute when she's worried he noted. He couldn't stay mad at her even if he wanted to. "Yeah I'm ok, its not bleeding it just hurts a lot."

"Sokka you're lying. I can tell. How do you always forget that?' her voice returning to its natural hardness.

"I don't know…"

"Well when you figure it out tell me. Now why didn't you have Katara heal you up?"

"I was to busy eating and fighting with Suki. But enough of that I'll tell you later. Lets all go back to camp so I can tell you what happened and you can tell me what you guys were up to." He proposed, "Also my nose is bleeding really bad and I'm starting to feel a little light headed."

All three of them walked back to camp in relative silence, Sokka occasionally let out a small gasp of pain, and Aang absently humming to himself.

Toph's mind was whirling. Why had Sokka and Suki been fighting? Could it possibly be that they weren't together anymore? Maybe Suki had met someone else and had broken up with him. Whatever the reason Toph was sure to find out soon enough.

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**A/N- sorry for the weak ending but I couldn't decide how to end it and I didn't want to waste any more time in getting this up. Please review and tell me what you think**

**-Megi**


	11. Catching up

**A/N- I have nothing to say except read on and enjoy.**

**Thanks to Twilight Rose2**

**Disclaimer- Because I don't want to get sued.**

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_"Well when you figure it out, tell me. Now why didn't you have Katara heal you up?"_

_"I was to busy eating and fighting with Suki, but enough of that I'll tell you later. Let's all go back to camp so I can tell you what happened and you can tell me what you guys were up to." He proposed, "Also my nose is bleeding really bad and I'm starting to feel a little light headed."_

_All three of them walked back to camp in relative silence, Sokka occasionally let out a small gasp of pain, and Aang absently humming to himself._

_Toph's mind was whirling. Why had Sokka and Suki been fighting? Could it possibly be that they weren't together anymore? Maybe Suki had met someone else and had broken up with him. Whatever the reason Toph was sure to find out soon enough._

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Katara gasped in horror, "Sokka what happened?" she quickly rushed to his side with her water at the ready. There was blood covering his whole arm and neck.

Toph was about to say something before Sokka interrupted. "Ohh you know I just tripped, clumsy old me. I landed on my broken nose and it started to bleed" he chuckled nervously. No need to get Toph in trouble, he knew if he told Katara what really happened Katara would yell at Toph, telling her she needed to be more considerate or something like that. And Toph would argue back and soon there would be a huge fight. Sokka hated it when they fought, he just wanted everyone to cooperate and be nice to one another.

Katara got to work healing Sokka's nose. When she was done she stood back and said, "Wow, that must have hurt, your nose was broken in three places. One of then was older and was harder to heal than the two fresh ones."

Toph's mouth shot open "You mean I broke…I mean Sokka broke his nose twice by just falling" she hoped Katara hadn't noticed the mistake she had made. She noticed a slight reaction in Katara's heart rate but Katara never questioned her.

"What do you mean you broke Sokka's nose?" asked an angry voice that for once didn't belong to Katara.

Toph turned to face the person. It was Suki. She hadn't noticed her when she had first come into camp. Toph felt a sudden surge of anger towards the girl but repressed it. Instead she decided to come clean "It was an accident I didn't know his nose was already broken." she said a little hotly.

"How do you accidentally break someone's nose, twice?"

"I earthbended a rock up in front of his feet to trip him. I didn't know he had a broken nose. If I did I wouldn't have tripped him" she said defensively. "It's not like it's any of your business anyway. I said I was sorry and he accepted my apology."

"Whatever, all I know is that I wouldn't intentionally trip someone I had feelings for." she responded coolly.

Toph's anger flared up and she blushed. "What makes you think I have feelings for Snoozles over there, I mean he's kind of wimpy."

"HEY!" interjected Sokka

"So you're saying you don't have a crush on Sokka?"

Toph turned scarlet "I…" she was trapped now.

Katara decided to intervene "You know what I healed his nose he's perfectly fine now. Why don't we just settle down and you guys can tell us what happened? That stew should be done in about 20 minutes"

"Excellent idea Katara" Aang said, he walked over and took a seat on one of the benches Toph had pulled up earlier that day. Katara sat next to him.

Toph walked over and took a seat across from Suki. This left only two open seats one next to Toph and one next to Suki. Sokka weighed his options, he didn't want to sit next to Toph and make Suki jealous risking another outburst. He certainly didn't want to sit next to Suki, not only would that be awkward but he also didn't want Toph thinking that anything was going on between them.

Katara saw his internal struggle and decided to help him. She stood up and grabbed his arm "Here why don't you sit down next to Aang and tell everyone about what happened, while I stir the vegetable stew." She pulled him down into the seat and Sokka silently thanked her. Sokka told the story at the beginning and when he got to the part where Suki told him what happened he paused and looked at her.

"It's okay Sokka I can take it from here." she said with a weak smile. She took a deep breath and told her story, this time with less tears. She noticed that it was a lot easier to tell it the second time.

When she was done Sokka spoke up, "After that I looked at a map and formed a plan. I knew you guys wouldn't wait the whole three days for me because that wouldn't leave any time for rest, you would have gotten here at the same time as the invasion force. My instincts told me you would leave sooner. According to the map it would have taken me three days to get there and that was if nothing happened to delay me. Then at least another three to make it to the island, probably more like four. So I decided to skip the detour to the meeting place and head straight for the island."

"Wow Sokka I'm liking your instincts more and more every time you use them!" said Aang

"I told you they where handy. I bet you feel twice as stupid for making fun of them now don't you? Airboy."

Aang didn't reply instead he let Sokka continue with the story. Finally he got to the end of the story with him and Suki getting in the boat, he shared a glance with Suki and they silently agreed to skip ahead to them landing on the island, leaving the breakup out of it.

"So what did you guys do while I was gone?" asked Sokka

"Not much," replied Toph sounding bored "The second day I didn't wake up till noon then we practiced bending till late and the third day we left early morning and flew till we got here. Since then I have mostly earthbended. Nothing special."

Aang and Katara looked at each other, smiling slightly, Toph didn't let them get one word in.

"What about the first day?"

"I don't know I was still unconscious."

"What?"

"Remember how Toph was hurt? Well her head injury was very severe; I didn't think she would pull through in the end. But she did, and if it weren't for you Sokka she wouldn't have." Said Katara.

"You mean I…I saved her life?" said Sokka in disbelief.

Toph blushed and turned her head towards the ground. "Yeah you did and well, thank you." she said in a small voice.

"Hey you don't need to thank me. Lets just consider it pay back for all the times you've saved my sorry butt. How many times has it been? Like five? Somewhere around there. So in reality I still owe you at least four more."

"Four and counting Snoozles, don't forget all the times I'll end up saving you tomorrow."

"Hey who says I'll need saving tomorrow, I've been sword training a lot recently and I'm getting pretty good if I do say so myself."

"Yeah but that doesn't stop you from being clumsy."

"Well how do you know that I won't end up saving you tomorrow?"

"Because the I'm the greatest earthbender in the world."

Their playful banter continued for five minutes, Suki watched this interaction between Toph and Sokka with growing interest, but then Katara cut in announcing that dinner was ready to eat.

The rest of the day went by in a lazy fashion. Every one mostly just mulled about the campsite making small talk or just sitting around doing nothing.

Toph had wanted to practice some more but Sokka told her she had done enough training and needed to rest. She was going to ignore him and earthbend anyway, until he offered to play a game of Elements with her. She called him a dunderhead but accepted his offer anyway, admitting that she didn't know how to play. He taught her the rules and hand signs.

"Okay so, water erodes earth, fire evaporates water, and earth smothers fire, right?" Toph asked to clarify it.

"Right."

"And the winner gets to flick the loser in the face?"

"Yes. Now are you ready?"

"Yep"

"Earth, water, fire, bend!" they both said in unison.

Sokka's hand showed water and Toph's fire.

"What do you have?" asked Toph

"Earth." Sokka lied.

"Sokka!" Toph said her voice disbelieving "are you trying to exploit my blindness to your advantage?"

"No."

"Liar, I bet you have water don't you?"

"Yes." he said defeated

"I knew it!" she said in triumph. She then proceeded to flick his face three times, once for winning, once for Sokka's cheating, and once just for the heck of it. This continued for twenty minutes before Sokka finally gave up having lost every single time.

Soon it was time for bed, everyone had laid down for sleep, except Suki. She walked over to Sokka and shook him slightly.

"Hey Sokka can I talk with you for a minute?"

"Sure."

He got up and they walked away from everyone else, but they didn't leave camp thinking everyone else was asleep. This was mostly true Katara and Aang were fast asleep, but not Toph. She had always had trouble falling right to sleep, and so much had happened today that her head was still buzzing with thoughts. Then she heard Suki's soft voice and Sokka's mumbled replay and then footsteps. She strained her ears listening in on their private conversation.

"Listen Sokka, I'm really sorry for the way I've been acting today. I don't know what has come over me. When you first broke up with me I was sad and hurt, because I really like you a lot, and I guess it all just turned to anger because you were constantly around reminding me of all the things I like about you and all the things I'll never have. Then seeing you around Toph made me realize that as long as your happy so am I."

"It's okay, Suki I understand."

"No it's not, I was acting downright awful and I'll make it up to you I swear. I can also see why you like her so much she's smart, sarcastic, and tough. Everything you need in a girl, she would be perfect for you."

"You don't have to make it up to me, your apology is enough. But coincidently would you mind not telling Toph that I like her. I'm not ready to yet, I get this feeling she might hurt me."

"Really? Because I get this feeling that she likes you a lot."

"How would you know? You've only been around her for a day."

"More than that if you count the serpents pass. Plus I have what one would call women's intuition, and it's telling me she definitely likes you. And then there was that time she kissed me." She said that last part musing to herself.

"What! She kissed you? When?" he said loudly and worrying slightly.

"Ohh not like that pervert. It was that time when she almost drown and I saved her, she kissed me on the cheek thinking that I was you."

"But why would she think that?"

"I think it's because you shouted that you would save her. She just assumed that it was you."

"Ohh," and then it hit him "but that means she has probably liked me since then right? Wow she must be feeling pretty jealous of you right now."

"Probably, I suggest you tell her how you feel soon, or at least that we have broken up."

"Yeah I guess you right. Well good night, and, thanks" he walked back over to where he was sleeping and laid down, unconsciously scooting closer to Toph as he immediately went to sleep.

Toph lay there in a daze. Sokka and Suki had broken up. And to top it all off Sokka liked her. She just couldn't process it. She felt Sokka lay down, this time a little closer than the first time he had gone to sleep. Then she felt his gentle heart beat slow as sleep overtook him and he scooted closer to her.

'_What in the world is he doing?' _she wondered to herself. She sensed that Suki had already lain down on the other side of Katara. Sokka had stopped only two feet from her, she could almost feel his breath on her neck, and it was driving her crazy. She earthbended a small rock and it hit him softly in the head. He didn't stir. '_That proves it he is defiantly asleep' _she lay still for a moment but couldn't get to sleep. Sokka was just way to close to her, so she tried moving farther away but that just made her restlessness worse. She did the only thing she could thing of, which coincidently happened to be one of the things she had been dreaming of for months. She scooted closer to him, so close in fact that she could actually feel his breath this time, instead of just imagining it. She accidentally brushed up against him and he stirred, wrapping his arms around her and mumbling her name._ 'Ohh crap he knows. I'm in trouble now' _her heartbeat rose but then she calmed sensing his heartbeat up against her back. It was slow and steady he was definitely sill asleep, and soon so was she.

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**A/N -There you have it hoped you liked it. Please review and tell me what you thought about Suki some people think she overreacted in the last chapter and I just want your opinion of how I did with her in this chapter thanks**

**-Megi**


	12. The morning of the invasion

**A/N- Thanks to all of my reviewers and Twilight Rose2 for betaing**

**Disclaimer- If I owned avatar I would know everything that happens after DoBS but I don't**

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What in the world is he doing?' _she wondered to herself. She sensed that Suki had already lain down on the other side of Katara. Sokka had stopped only two feet from her, she could almost feel his breath on her neck, and it was driving her crazy. She earthbended a small rock and it hit him softly in the head. He didn't stir. '_That proves it he is defiantly asleep' _she lay still for a moment but couldn't get to sleep. Sokka was just way to close to her, so she tried moving farther away but that just made her restlessness worse. She did the only thing she could thing of, which coincidently happened to be one of the things she had been dreaming of for months. She scooted closer to him, so close in fact that she could actually feel his breath this time, instead of just imagining it. She accidentally brushed up against him and he stirred, wrapping his arms around her and mumbling her name. _'Ohh crap he knows. I'm in trouble now' _her heartbeat rose but then she calmed sensing his heartbeat up against her back. It was slow and steady he was definitely sill asleep, and soon so was she._

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Sokka awoke with a small cramp in his arm, and a warm feeling against his body. He opened his eyes and, to his pure astonishment, saw a slumbering Toph curled up in his arms. Her head rested on his left arm near his shoulder and was the source of the small cramp. Her raven hair spilled into his face and he could smell a very calming earthy smell that drove his senses wild. His right arm was wrapped around her middle, and both of Toph's arms hugged it tightly to her chest, and her back was pressed neatly into his stomach and chest causing that nice gentle warm sensation that was spreading through him. But the warm feeling quickly turned to one of cold dread as he realized the compromising position that they were both in.

His heartbeat rose to a frantic beat, his mind working at top speed trying to find a way out of this situation without waking Toph, but it was impossible. His eyes quickly scanned the camp to see if anyone else was awake. Thank fully both Aang and Katara were still asleep, and he didn't expect them up for another hour. It was still very early and the sun was just barley rising above the horizon. He looked around trying to locate Suki, she wasn't sleeping so that must mean she was awake somewhere. He saw her at the very edge of camp going through what he recognized as Kyoshi warrior warm up exercises.

He decided to risk a loud whisper. "Psst Suki."

She looked in his direction and a mischievous grin spread out over her face "Did you have a good sleep Sokka?"

"I don't know last thing I remember is falling asleep in my own space and then I wake up like this. Now would you please help me before she wakes up? There's an invasion today that I would like to be alive for." He whispered angrily, but it was too late Toph stirred and rolled over in his arms burying her face deep into his chest and wrapping her now free arms around his body, so that they were both hugging each other, their bodies pressed together.

She inhaled deeply through her nose, "Mmm you smell nice Sokka." She said sleepily. Then realizing her current situation her muscles tensed up and her eyes shot open wide.

_'Ooh man I'm in for it now'_ Sokka thought as Toph released him and used earthbending to forcefully move him ten feet away from her.

"What the heck was that Snoozles!?" she yelled at him, a blush spreading across her face. She remember everything from the night before but since she didn't want Sokka to know she had heard him and Suki talking she pretended she had no idea what was going on. Plus it was mostly her fault they were like that and she defiantly didn't want him to know that.

Her yell awoke Aang and Katara who shot up from the ground and looked around blurry eyed. "What's goin' on?" and "Is the fire lord attacking?" were heard from them both. But no one paid them any attention.

"I guess we both must have moved around in our sleep." Sokka replied nervously

"For you information Snoozles I sleep like a rock, calm and unmoving, so therefore it must have been you moving in your sleep."

"Well you were the one using my arm for a pillow." He shot back

"What ever. Lets just get ready for the invasion" she stomped off out of sight, embarrassed and blushing, to prepare herself for battle.

Aang still looked confused. "What just happened?" he asked.

"Nothing, get ready, the invasion force should be here in a few hours." Sokka said sulking away from camp. Aang and Katara shared looks before also going their separate ways to prepare.

Soon every one had met back up in camp and Suki had breakfast started. They ate in silence, each to busy with their own thoughts to talk with anyone else, though Sokka kept stealing secret glances in Toph's direction, and Toph in turn pretended not to notice even though she could feel his gaze every minute or two.

Even though he would never admit it out loud, Sokka was very concerned for the wellbeing of his blind companion. He had a strange suspicion that she was going to be hurt, but he quickly shook the thought from his mind. It was crazy this was Toph he was talking about she was too strong and brave and stubborn to let anything bad happen to her, not only that she was a very skilled earthbender, the best he had ever seen. No she would be fine, she had to be. If not, well, Sokka didn't want to think about that.

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Finally the invasion force arrived, hidden behind a thick layer of fog. Sokka and Katara both ran up to greet their father, while everyone else hung back. After a minute of talking Sokka broke away and walked up to Aang.

"My dad has a surprise for you" he said in a teasing manner.

"What is it?" he asked perking up and a huge smile on his face.

"I'm not telling it's a secret!"

"Aww com'on Sokka tell me!"

"Nope."

Aang thought for a minute before he grinned devilishly, "Do you remember about two weeks ago when your jerky came up missing and you wanted to know who took it?"

"Yeah?"

"Well I'll tell you who did it if you tell me the surprise."

"Deal!" Sokka shouted. He really wanted to know who took his jerky so he could get his revenge. "While my dad was away picking up our friends and allies him and Bato made armor for Appa. Isn't that great now he's less likely to get injured!"

Aang was speechless, his mouth hung open in a stupor. "That's…" he didn't know what to say to express the overwhelming joy and gratitude welling up inside him. "I have to go thank him!" he said before rushing off

"Wait Aang! Who stole my jerky?" unfortunately he never got an answer.

He scanned the camp looking for anything that would interest him before the meeting started. It looked like Katara was introducing Toph to Haru and Teo. He walked over to them. "Hey guys what's going on?"

Teo spoke up right away, "Nothing Katara was just introducing us to your attractive friend"

Sokka immediately flared up at this comment "What! You take that back! Toph is not attractive." It grew deathly silent. All eyes were on Toph who had a dark scowl on her face. Then Sokka realized his mistake "That's not what I meant I swear." he said growing nervous and silently cursing himself for saying such a stupid thing.

"Then what did you mean Meathead?" on the outside Toph continued to scowl, but on the inside she was laughing her head off. Right now Sokka's heart was beating so fast and hard she was sure it would pop right out of his chest. She of course could tell he hadn't meant what he had said but Toph being herself couldn't pass up an opportunity like this to mess with him. She crossed her arms across her chest impatiently while he continued to stammer, hardly making any sense at all.

Just then Aang walked up to them "Hey Sokka your dad wants you to get ready for the meeting it's going to start in about 10 minutes" he said.

"Ohh well I guess I better go and prepare." he slinked away muttering thanks to the spirits under his breath. Hearing this Toph smirked to her self, and they all went to the meeting to listen to Sokka give his speech.

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Toph sat at the meeting without actually listening to what was going on. Sokka had just messed up on his moment of truth and Hakoda had taken over. Through the earth she could feel the sadness and self-loathing emanating from him, she wanted to comfort him but knew that such an act would be extremely out of character for her so she held herself back.

Soon she heard cheering around her and jumped up to join in with everyone else. They all went to the boats Toph last in line she heard Sokka up ahead talking to the Mechanist, she heard snatches of the conversation something about plans for an invention. But she really didn't care she was trying her hardest to think of something other than the fact that she could die today. So far she was failing, she kept imagining getting hit with something she could not sense such as arrows and fire. It caused a cold dread to come over her as she climbed aboard the boat and sailed off. But to victory or failure, life or death she did not know.

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Sokka sat at the meeting not listening. He was to busy beating himself up over the fact that his dad had to take over after he failed to explain the plan.

_'How could I have been so stupid? What kind of a leader does that make me if I can't even explain one little plan? I bet everyone is laughing at me right now. What does Toph think of me? I bet she's laughing the hardest out of everyone else, Suki's wrong how could Toph like a wimp like me when she so strong and brave, she deserves better.'_

For once the other side of him didn't jump in to comfort him or even try to stop these thoughts. He just sat there each thought worse than the last. Then he heard cheering around him, he looked around but didn't join in; his heart sunk when he realized not one person seemed to notice his inner pain. He got up and started walking to the boats along with everyone else. He was silent and didn't make eye contact with anyone due to his shame and humiliation. Then he heard someone walk up beside him, it was the Mechanist.

"What seems to bothering you my boy?" he asked Sokka

"Nothing just a little nervous is all. Did you complete work on those plans I sent you?"

"Why yes I did. And let me tell you how marvelous an idea it was."

They continued talking about the invention, Sokka momentarily forgetting about how he failed to give his speech. And soon they were on the boats sailing off, to what Sokka truly believed was victory, after all his plans had never failed before.

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**A/N- I know your all cursing me for the long wait and shortness of this strictly filler chapter but I'm sorry I'm going through a small (huge) writing slump right now. I'm not feeling so sure about this chapter I ended up rewriting it several times and taking out parts all together so your comments would be greatly appreciated whether they be good or bad, just let me know how I did. Thanks for reading**

**-Megi**


	13. Aboard the subs

**A/N- Thanks to everyone who has ever reviewed on this story to help get over my writers block I went through and reread all of you comments and it helped me feel more motivated to be creative, if that makes sense. Anyway its thanks to you I was able to write this chapter. Extra long chapter ahead 4,240 words long. Now enjoy. :)**

**Thanks to Twilight Rose2 for betaing**

**Disclaimer- Little known fact, I actually own Avatar, yep that's right I'm taking all credit…In case you couldn't tell I was being sarcastic XP**

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_Then he heard someone walk up beside him, it was the Mechanist._

_"What seems to bothering you my boy?" he asked Sokka_

_"Nothing just a little nervous is all. Did you complete work on those plans I sent you?"_

_"Why yes I did. And let me tell you how marvellous an idea it was."_

_They continued talking about the invention, Sokka momentarily forgetting about how he failed to give his speech. And soon they were on the boats sailing off, to what Sokka truly believed was victory, after all his plans had never failed before._

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On the boat Toph took up her usual seat next to Sokka tightly clinging to his arm for security. Next to her she could feel Sokka's heart beating erratically and she could hear his breath escaping his mouth.

"Jeez Snoozles, calm down or your going to give yourself a heart attack. Do you wanna die before you even get a chance to kick some major Fire Nation butt?"

"No! But I can't help it what if we fail? What if I die?" he took in a slow breath and said in a voice so soft Toph could barely hear him, "What if you die?"

Toph was taken back by this last statement. It was so sudden she wasn't sure if it was real. She wasn't even sure she was meant to hear it. She shook her head to clear her thoughts before they grew to wild and outrageous. "Don't be crazy it was your plan remember? Your plans never fail. And about you dying didn't we already go over this? I'm gonna be watching your back the whole time, I won't let anything near you." She gave him what she hoped was a confident and reassuring smile. "I'm the greatest earthbender in the world, nothings going to happen to me."

'_This is it, its now or never' _Sokka thought to himself. His heartbeat rose even more as he opened his mouth to speak. "Toph I have to tell you something"

Her breath caught in her throat at the sound of his voice. She couldn't believe he was about to say it. She put on a calm expression as if she had no idea what he was about to do. _"Yes?" 'I hope that didn't sound to expectant'_

"Toph I…"

Just then an alarm sounded. Sokka looked up, they were nearing the great gates of Azulon. The alarm continued to ring as the netted gates caught fire, preventing their entrance to the fire nation capitol. Then it grew completely silent, Sokka couldn't see anything in the dense fog except the image of the burning gates in front of him. A creepy feeling entered his body at the silence, it was unnerving.

"Sokka what's happening?" Toph asked her voice was strong and confident, she kept her feelings of worry and fear tightly locked away inside.

"We've just been spotted" his voice also masking his nervousness and panic.

Then it was heard, speed boats approaching there fleet. The sound cut through the silence like a hot knife through butter.

"Everyone below deck!" Hakoda shouted "Lets hope your invention works" he said to Sokka as Sokka grabbed Toph's arm helping her below deck. When they got there Sokka steered Toph in the direction of his invention, the submarine. He led her inside.

"So how exactly does this thing work anyway?" she asked. The danger of the moment before had made her forget about what Sokka was about to tell her.

"Well, this is basically a water proof tube the uses water bending to sink and float beneath the surface of the water. We can travel around virtually undetectable. The only problem is it has a limited air supply that the Mechanist couldn't fix. He said that we'll have to resurface once before we reach the main land." He explained as the sub took off into the water, also forgetting his thoughts of telling Toph his feelings.

"Wow Sokka that's amazing you really invented this?" Toph asked awed.

"I just came up with the idea, the Mechanist did all the work." He said shrugging

The Mechanist heard his modest comment and interjected "Now don't sell yourself short my boy, it was your idea all the credit should go to you."

Toph was suddenly overtaken by a wave of sickness, her head was spinning and there was no way to make it stop. She slumped down to the floor and leaned against the wall of the sub, all the feelings of amazement she had felt towards Sokka for his wonderful invention left her as she held her head in her hands. "I take that back, this is worse than flying, how could you invent such a horrible way of travel?" she said sickly.

The Duke, who had had been sitting against the wall when Toph slumped down next to him, removed his helmet, "Helmet?" he asked as he handed it to her. She grabbed at it and without replying emptied her stomach into it.

Sokka looked at her worried, and knelt to the ground next to her. "Are you okay?"

"Ohh I'm just fine, peachy keen in fact. I'm only puking my guts out because that's what all the cool kids are doing nowadays" she said sarcasm dripping from each word. She puked once more.

Sokka laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess that was kind of a stupid question huh?"

"Ya think?"

"It's okay. You're just a little sea sick. I'm sure you'll get over it soon enough." He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Sokka I need you over here to go over some last minute battle plans" said Hakoda from the back of the sub. He was bent over a small map of the capitol city and was stroking his beard thoughtfully.

"Okay" he gave Toph's shoulder a soft squeeze before standing up and walking over to his dad. "What's wrong?" He asked when he reached his father.

"I just got word from Bato that five of the tanks were damaged somehow and now they won't run, with five tanks down we need to think up a new strategy."

"Do you know what kind of damage they suffered?"

"The metal tracking on the bottom seems to have been broken somehow. Why?"

"We don't need a new strategy we just need to fix them" Sokka exclaimed.

"But how? We're in the middle of the ocean with no way to melt the metal back together." Said Hakoda confused.

Sokka smiled, the grin spreading across his face. "Her name is Toph"

"That's right I have forgotten that she can bend metal."

"Yep" he looked over in her direction a goofy smile on his face, his eyes shining with admiration.

Hakoda noticed the look in his eyes "So how are things with you two?" he asked slyly

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked oblivious to the mischievous look on his fathers face, he was to busy staring at Toph. To him she looked just as beautiful when she was pale with sickness as when she wasn't.

"You know what I mean. Why was she holding your arm when we were aboard the ship?"

"She can't 'see' when she's on wood. I guess she holds my arm for security. She does it all the time when we're flying on Appa." He said not even taking his eyes off of the girl in question. He had, not for the first time, gotten himself trapped in his thoughts of sharing a kiss with her. His face now displayed a faraway look, his eyes now clouded over with a daydream.

"Why doesn't she hold onto Katara or Aang?" Sokka didn't respond "Hello? Earth to Sokka"

"I'm sorry, what?" he said quickly, getting pulled out of his daydreaming, and putting his attention back on his dad.

"I asked why she doesn't hold onto your sister or Aang."

"I never really thought about that. I guess it would be because Aang is always steering Appa and Katara is likely to coddle her to death."

"Do you like her and I mean as more than a friend?" he asked getting straight to the point.

Sokka choked and sputtered "What?!" he finally managed.

"Come on I just saw the way you were staring at her. It was the same way I looked at your mother before I finally got the courage to ask her out on a date."

"Dad!" Sokka was now blushing and embarrassed.

"What? I'm just saying. Also your mother and I were four years apart, just thought I would throw that out there. Now back on topic, when we resurface for air I want you to take Toph to the tanks and see if she can fix them okay?"

"But Toph will probably want to get some fresh air, she is sick you know, it would do her some good."

"Okay then, take her for some fresh air first then take her to the tanks. How does that sound?"

"Good I guess, now if you don't need me I'm going to tell Toph and see if she's alright." He walked away, his father smiling at his retreating back.

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Aang rode on Appa steering him through the underwater currents, a huge air bubble stretched over the bison's head. As he steered Aang couldn't help but feel very nervous about the task that had been set upon him. How was he going to win this fight? Their whole strategy depended on the fact that the Fire Lord wasn't guarded or even expecting an eclipse, if there were guards surely they would fight tooth and nail to save their lord, who would probably escape to a secret bunker in all of the commotion, and by the time he found him again the eclipse would be over. Of coarse no one had voiced these concerns aloud they were all to certain of their secrecy and hopeful for a victory.

_'What if I fail?' _he asked himself repeatedly

Aang's mind stopped these terrible thoughts that were threatening to overcome him, and instead wondered about how much time had passed sense they had started travelling under the water. Sokka had told him that they would need to resurface once before reaching the land to get air. This was when Aang would fly on his new glider to the Fire Lord's palace and confront him.

_'But in the meantime I need to find something to take mind off of all this'_

He looked around; from his place on Appa's head he could see the glistening water surrounding them, threatening to crush him with it weight and power. Through its depths he could see the subs gliding effortlessly through the water as schools of many coloured fish swam past. There were deep hues of purple and red, brilliantly bright pinks and yellows and oranges, verdant greens and calming blues, all swimming past without a care unaware of the war happening just outside of their world. The sight was breathtaking and it calmed him and made him forget his troubles.

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_'Stupid Sokka, stupid sub, stupid invasion, why couldn't we have found an easier way onto this stupid island.'_ all these thoughts and some much worse ones crossed Toph's mind as she sat in pain holding her spinning head in her hands.

Sokka walked up beside her, "Hey Toph are you feeling any better?" he asked concerned.

His voice caused a jolt of pain through her head with each word. "Jeez Snoozles think you could talk any louder?" she said annoyed

"Sorry," he replied softer this time. "I take that as a no. But listen we should be resurfacing for air in about 20 minutes so that should help out a lot, then we have a problem I need you to fix."

"What is it?" she asked, lifting her head out of her hands to face him, curiosity gracing her features.

"Well five of the tanks that we're using for the invasion some how got the tracking on them broken. We need you to metal bend them back together if you can."

"What do you mean if?" she said regaining some of her normal composure. "Do you think I won't be able to do it? I'm the greatest earthbender ever!"

"I know I didn't mean it like it sounded I was just…"

Toph cut off his nervous rant with a laugh and still snickering slightly she said "Wow even with out my senses I can tell your heart is beating a million miles an hour. Just calm down." She punched him in the arm "And thanks"

He rubbed his now sore arm "For what?"

"Making me feel better. My head doesn't hurt anymore and the world has stopped spinning."

"You're welcome, I guess. But what did I do?" he was slightly confused.

"I don't know, can't you just take the thanks I give to you?" she slugged him in the shoulder again.

"That depends, are you going to hit me again?"

"Maybe, I haven't decided yet"

It was completely silent for a moment as Sokka eyed her suspiciously before both started laughing at the same time. As their mirth continued Katara walked up to the pair.

"Hey you two get serious and stop fooling around if you haven't noticed we're fighting a war here." They both stopped immediately "Now then we're resurfacing sooner than expected so hurry up and get some air so you can repair those tanks"

As she walked away Toph muttered "Killjoy…" under her breath so only Sokka could hear it.

Sokka snickered "Yeah, but she's probably just stressed right now, I mean the outcome of this whole war is decided by what we're doing right now; and just a minute ago we were laughing like nothing important was happening. It probably just made her a little mad."

Toph gave him a weird look before once again slugging him in the arm, "Don't pull that reasoning crap on me. Just because we're having fun keeping ourselves busy before a huge battle, doesn't mean she can come over here a yell at us. Now come on lets go to the hatch as soon as this thing hits fresh air I'm out of here, this air is getting way to stuffy."

"I still have to fight with this arm you know." he said in annoyance as he stood and helped her up.

"You'll get over it." she said as they both walked towards the hatch.

They reached the hatch at the exact time that the sub broke the surface of the water. Sokka went up the ladder first and opened the hatch. A gust of cool fresh salty air hit his face as he went through the opening, fallowed closely by Toph.

"Fresh air!" she exclaimed as she inhaled a huge breath of air through her nose and exhaled loudly through her mouth. "I never thought I would miss air this much."

Just then Appa broke the surface of the water, Aang atop his head. Aang air bent himself onto the deck of the sub. "Hey guys. Where's Katara?" he asked looking around.

"Right here" answered Katara as she climbed through the hatch.

They all stood in silence, a sombre mood hung in the air between them.

"So this is it huh?" said Aang breaking the silence, sounding glum and looking at his feet, his hand tightly griped his new glider.

"Are you ready for the Fire Nation to know that the Avatar's alive" asked Sokka

"I'm ready" He said his voice strong and confident. Katara pulled him into a hug fallowed by Sokka and Toph.

"I hope you kick some serious Fire Lord butt twinkle toes" said Toph

"Thanks guys" said Aang pulling out of the group hug.

"Well me and Sokka should go and fix those tanks now. Come on Sokka." She grabbed his hand and led him back towards the entrance to the sub; all the while smiling to herself. If Twinkle Toes was going to say anything to Katara now would be the perfect time.

Aang and Katara were now all alone and there was an awkward silence between them.

_'This is it. This has to be the moment Toph was talking about. I should tell her.'_

He took a deep breath summoning all of his courage. "Katara, I..."

But he wasn't alone, at the same time Katara had started to talk. "Aang, I…"

Aang smiled his statement could wait just a few minutes longer. "You go first."

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They walked through the control room. "Are Katara and Aang still on the deck?" asked Hakoda

"Yeah I think so."

"Well we need to submerge. Once you show Toph to the damaged tanks I need you to go and tell her."

"Okay" They continued on their way to the tanks finally Sokka stopped at a ladder leading downwards into the sub. "Here it is right down this ladder. I have to go get Katara so we can submerge."

"Wait. Aren't you going to show me which ones are the damaged ones?" she asked not wanting Sokka to interrupt Katara and Aang's moment.

"Ohh right. Here follow me" we went down the ladder fallowed by Toph. He walked about ten paces and stopped "Here's the first one. While your fixing it I'm going to tell Katara that we need to submerge and then I'll come back and show you to the next one." He started to walk back towards the ladder.

"Wait!" Toph cried trying to buy a little more time.

Sokka stopped "What?"

"Umm, how am I supposed to fix them? I mean where's the tracking?"

"Oh right sorry." Standing behind her he grabbed her hands and pushed her forward, closer to the tank, and placed them on cold metal. "The fracture in the tracking is right here" he slid both of her hands across the surface of the metal tracks until they came into contact with a large break in the metal. "Need anything else?" he asked still holding her hands.

"Umm" Toph was blushing from the contact, Sokka's chest was pressed up against her back and his arms were wrapped around her shoulders his hands still clutching hers. They were in a situation very similar to the one they were in just that morning and when Sokka realized this he too blushed and released her hands taking a step backwards.

"Sorry…" he said still blushing

"For what?" she asked also blushing. _'It's a good thing my back is towards him' _she thought to herself.

"Nothing. Do you need anymore help?"

"No, I can handle it now" she said not able to think of anything else to stall him.

"Okay. I'll be back" he left without another word.

Sokka walked down the subs hallway finally reaching the hatch to the deck. He took his time walking up the ladder and upon reaching the top he casually looked out of the porthole before opening the hatch.

Sokka did a double take. He stared, mouth wide. 'Is that Aang…kissing MY baby sister?'

It was. Sokka watched as the kiss ended and Aang took off, without a word, on his glider. Sokka felt a sudden anger overcome him but it quickly disappeared as he realized there was nothing to be angry about. Aang was a very trustworthy person and if Sokka had to choose anyone for Katara it would be him. He was just being overprotective, like any brother would be, and he felt relief at finding out that Aang's girl problems involved Katara and not Toph. The scene had also reminded him of something had meant to do by now, tell Toph his feelings.

When he finally opened the hatch Katara was facing away from him, her eyes looked with longing and worry in the direction Aang had flown off to. "Hey Katara! What are you doing we're about to submerge." He would pretend he hadn't saw.

"Right." She said snapping into action, she jumped onto Appa's head forming a huge water sphere around it to trap in air.

As soon as she was under the surface of the water Sokka shut the hatch and climbed down the ladder. He went to the control room to tell them to submerge then he went straight to Toph. He found her leaning against the tank looking bored.

"Jeez Snoozles what's the rush?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"You were practically running to get here. What's the big hurry?"_ 'Could he have possibly seen anything?' _She wondered.

"Ohh," he hadn't realized he had been walking so fast, he was to consumed with what he was about to tell Toph. He suddenly grew nervous, and thanked the solid wood floor he was standing on, that Toph couldn't sense his heart beating erratically in his chest. "Nothing. So did you fix this tank?"

Toph furrowed her brow. There was something different in his voice, was it nervousness? "Yeah…" she replied brow still furrowed and standing up straight no longer casually leaning on the tank. There was silence. "Aren't you going to show me to the next tank?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ohh yeah. Right, umm this way." He walked over to her grasping her hand gently within his own and led her to the next tank. He placed her hands on the damaged part and took a step back. He watched intently as she twisted and mended the metal beneath her hands with little effort. It would never cease to amaze him how easily bending came to her, especially with her blindness, but he supposed that her blindness might actually be the reason she was so gifted in bending. Soon she was done and he looked over her work, it was as if the metal had never been damaged. "Wow, Toph you're amazing." He praised

"Didn't I tell you I was the greatest? Now off to the next one" she held out her hand expectantly with a smug look on her face. Sokka complied grasping it yet again and leading her to the next tank.

They finished fixing the rest of the tanks in silence. When the last one was done Toph rubbed her hands together and sighed. "Well that was the last one. We should head back to the control room and see how much time we have until we reach the land." She reached her hand out expecting Sokka to lead her back to the ladder.

Sokka looked at her outstretched hand and took a deep breath, this was it finally. He grabbed her hand. "Toph we need to talk." He pulled her to a nearby wall and slid down it into a sitting position, prompting her to do the same. "I'm about to say something and I want you to promise me you won't laugh or hurt me in any way."

"I can't make a promise like that. Most of the time you say some thing that either makes me want to laugh at your stupidity or hurt you." She responded with out any thought. _'Stupid! What am I doing? I could ruin this'_

"Toph I'm being serious here."

"I know. I'm sorry, I promise not to laugh at you or hurt you in anyway, no matter what." Her heart was beating franticly in anticipation of what was coming next and, through her contact with his hand; she could tell that so was his.

"On our long journey we've been through a lot together Toph. At first I simply thought of you as a new, and rather childish, addition to our group, someone a little more annoying than useful. Then as time went on I started to value your friendship and I saw and admired your true earth bending abilities. It wasn't until recently that I started to see you in a whole new way. I started having thoughts about you that were confusing and they made me feel different around you. Every time you got close to me or laughed at one of my jokes my stomach did flips. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've really grown to like you, as more than just a friend. When I was away from you for those four days you're practically the only thing I thought of. It made me realize what I thought I felt for Suki wasn't real. I know our age differences are kind of big but I'm willing to wait a couple of years for you to get more mature, and in a few years I was wondering if maybe you would want to go do something, sometime, at a place. Possibly…" during his talk he had kept his eyes glued to the floor in front of him but as he finished talking he looked up expectantly at her face.

Toph was speechless, she knew what was coming but she didn't know it would be so…amazing. Words couldn't describe how she was feeling at that moment. Sokka was holding his breath, he couldn't read the expression on her face so he had no idea what she was going to say. She opened her mouth to speak when all of a sudden a call was heard throughout the sub.

"Earthbenders into your tanks!"

She looked at him and gave him a quick smile "I have to go and so do you" she pulled her hand out of his and walked over to the tank she had just finished repairing. She got in just as a whole crowd of earthbenders and Water Tribe men came rushing down the ladder and into the room.

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**A/N- Please review on your way out. I want to know how you liked it. Action next chapter! **

**-Megi**


	14. The invasion part one

**A/N- Sorry for the long weight and shortness of this chapter but I've had drama practice every night straight for the last three weeks. But now the play is over so you don't have to worry about late chapters any more. But on a bad note my mom thinks me and my sisters fight over the computer too much so now we're on a set schedule and I only get about an hour on the computer a day so for now on chapters will be shorter but I guess the good part of that is there will be more of them till the end b/c I am getting close to the end.**

**Thanks to twilight Rose2**

**Disclaimer- Not yet**

* * *

_"Earthbenders into your tanks!"_

_She looked at him and gave him a quick smile "I have to go and so do you." she pulled her hand out of his and walked over to the tank she had just finished repairing. She got in just as a whole crowd of earthbenders and Water Tribesmen came rushing down the ladder and into the room._

* * *

Sokka stood stock still as the subs scraped the shore of the main island. His heartbeat strangely calm. He had just told Toph his feelings for her, now win or lose, life or death he could go into battle without any regrets, he just wished he knew how she felt. She had smiled at him, which was a good sign, right? The sub started to open, letting a strong light fill the dark interior, and he forced his mind clear. He needed to be fully alert for this battle.

* * *

As Toph stood in the tank she couldn't shake this strange feeling she had. For some reason she felt like she should have told Sokka how she felt before leaving him. There was an overwhelming sense of foreboding around her, like she was never going to get another chance to tell him. As the sub scraped against the shore she forced her self-calm, and made her mind focus on the task at hand.

* * *

There was shouting all around him as he rushed forward onto the shore, his sword held steady in front of him. For some reason he couldn't help but stay close to Toph's tank as the rush of warriors surged forward pushing him deeper into the fire nation capitol.

Then he saw them, the opposing army, running towards him fire shooting from their hands. He held up his shield effortlessly blocking the attack. Then with the swing of his sword brought down one enemy. He quickly jumped back as he saw flames rushing at him from the right. He saw his attacker being brought down by a powerful water attack coming from a group of swamp benders as he rushed forward trying to catch up with the tanks that continued to push through the enemy forces. As he ran he was continuously blocking and dodging blows from enemy weapons that were coming at him from all sides, he was in an endless sea of metal clashing against metal, each sound ripping through him with terrible force. But worse than that was the fact that with each enemy he was forced to face, Toph got farther and farther from him. He had this strange need to be near her, to protect her, even though it would be pointless, she could take care of herself after all.

He stumbled and fell, flat on his face. He rolled onto his back just in time to block a sword being swung right at his head. The force of the sword slamming into his shield sent tremors up his arm. He used his legs to knock his enemy off balance causing him to fall to the ground. Before he could stand up a spear was thrust towards his gut, he quickly grabbed it before it could make contact and ripped it from his opponents grasp. He jabbed the handle into the man's ribs shoving him away. He then used the spear to knock the feet out from under everyone surrounding him. He jumped to his feet and quickly rushed past his fallen opponents, dropping the spear and picking up his dropped sword as he did so. About 20 feet away was the tank Toph was in and he started for it. Suddenly it was engulfed in flame as a huge firebomb exploded tipping it over onto its side.

* * *

Toph felt the rumble of the tank beneath her as it started to move. Soon afterward She heard shouting and what sounded like mass confusion. There were running footsteps and clashing swords all around her. Pained shouts also filled the air as men fell to the ground never to rise again.

She swallowed hard concentrating on one thing only, Sokka. She had to make sure he was safe. She could sense him running next to the tank but he soon started to fall behind as Fire Nation soldiers attacked him. But she couldn't just stand there like a bump on a log she forced herself to think of something other than him and started her assault on the soldiers around the tank. She used her earthbending to launch disk shaped boulders into the Fire Nation troops crushing them three at a time.

After a minute or so she couldn't stand it any longer, she extended her 'sight' outward searching desperately for Sokka. She grew frantic when she couldn't find him; he was nowhere near the tank anymore. Holding in her panic she threw another disc into the crowd of Fire Nation soldiers. She searched for him again, nothing. She couldn't sense any thing more than 10 feet away, there were just way to many vibration obscuring her vision.

_'Maybe if I was on solid earth' _she thought _'Besides I'll fight better from the ground'_

She earthbended a huge disk up to eyelevel, but instead of throwing it out of the tank she turned it so it would work as a shield for her body. She then jumped out of the tank.

* * *

Sokka cried out in anguish. With tears streaming from his eyes he blindly ran forward cutting down any in his path, not even stopping to see if they were friend or foe. He received a severe burn to his shoulder but didn't stop running, he didn't even notice the pain it was causing him to swing his sword. The only thing he felt was despair, anger and sadness, the only thing he saw was the burning tank, it filled his whole vision.

When he reached the tank nothing moved. With inhuman strength he pushed the tipped tank right side up. He climbed inside where he found several earthbenders groaning on the floor, luckily no one was severely hurt, but Toph was nowhere to be found.

* * *

A burst of flame engulfed her rock shield as she landed on the earth. Locating her attacker, she kicked up a pillar to slam into the man's chest knocking him backwards and onto the ground, he lay there coughing and sputtering before he was knocked unconscious by another rock delivered straight to the man's head. As soon as she took care of that soldier Toph noticed two more advancing on her. Luckily they weren't fire benders or they could have got her from the side. She quickly turned and launched her shield at them throwing them backwards and away from her.

She pulled up a hollow pillar around her to protect her from any attacks while she searched for Sokka. She took a deep breath and concentrated. The first thing she noticed was the difference being on the ground made, she could now sense individual heartbeats in the people around her, or in some cases lack thereof. She could also sense, and not just hear, each fiery explosion caused by fireballs being launched from the battlements above the battle field. But unfortunately even with these few additions to her site she still couldn't locate Sokka. There were too many vibrations and heartbeats to discern any differences of one to another.

She cursed and slammed her fist upon the ground sending out a massive shockwave radiating from her little fortress. The force knocked out several fire nation solders that were converging on her getting ready to breakdown her protective walls. Just then there was an explosion just a few yards away. The vibrations cut through her core like a sword; they caused her walls to crumble before their awesome power and sent her flying from the ground.

* * *

_'Maybe I have the wrong tank. Yeah that's it I just got confused Toph's all right' _his panic subsided though he still couldn't seem to shake the feeling of unease that had been with him since the beginning of the battle.

He quickly blocked a blow from a club and used his sword to knock the weapon from his attackers grasp. He then kicked out sending the man sprawling on the ground. Then he noticed it, the unnatural disturbance in the earth. It was as if a violent tremor had rippled through the earth causing the rocks to jut out at odd angles in a rippled manner. It was a clear sign of earth bending.

_'Okay so maybe that was Toph's tank but she wasn't in it when it exploded. Yeah that's it' _his panic began to rise again if he was right then that would mean Toph was out on the battlefield unprotected._ 'Or maybe it's not Toph at all maybe it's some other earthbender'_

His eyes quickly scanned the area around the disturbed ground. There were chunks of loose rocks littering the ground, along with many fire nation solders that looked as if they had been either thrown back in the explosion or possibly hit by the earth bending attack. Then his eyes rested on a splash of green within all the red and it took a minute for his brain to process what this could be.

He gasped pulling the smoky, deadly, air into his lungs, holding it there with out even realizing it. He ran forward and there he saw her, Toph, lying in a crumpled heap on the ground. She wasn't moving, it didn't even look like she was breathing, and Sokka's heart stopped as he struggled to gain control of the immense panic, rage, and sadness threatening to overrun him.

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**A/N- Again sorry for the shortness and the cliffhanger but the next one shouldn't take to long. please review on your way out.**

**-Megi**


	15. The invasion part two

**A/N- Hey everyone I would have had this out awhile ago but my computer decided to be lame and not save my information so I had to type it all back up, and then I got hit with a wedding and a huge family get together so yeah it would have been out at least two weeks ago Well enjoy!**

**Thanks to TwilightRose2**

**Disclaimer-Maybe if everyone reading this mailed me one dollar I might have enough money to by the rights to own Avatar.**

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_He gasped, pulling the smoky, deadly, air into his lungs, holding it there with out even realizing it. He ran forward and there he saw her, Toph, lying in a crumpled heap on the ground. She wasn't moving, it didn't even look like she was breathing, and Sokka's heart stopped as he struggled to gain control of the immense tide of emotions threatening to overrun him._

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It was the end of the world. Everything around Sokka seemed frozen in time, even the harsh battle sounds were cut out. He rushed forward, fighting back hot tears that burned at his eyes. Just then a Fire Nation solider that had been knocked to the ground groaned and started to sit up. Sokka rushed past him and with the flash of his sword the man was dead.

After what felt like ages, but in reality only a few seconds, Sokka reached Toph. He was surprised to find that she didn't look that bad up close. She had a few scrapes and bruises here and there, and there was a long cut down the side of her face. Other than that she looked fine, peaceful even, almost as if she were asleep. He knelt down to examine her closer.

A sword flashed in front of his face, coming so close he could feel the wind of it tickle at his nose. In the blink of an eye Sokka shoved his sword into his attacker's chest and pushed the man away without a second thought. He threw his sword to the ground and repositioned Toph so she was laying flat on her back. He then put a hand on the side of her face. Her soft pale skin felt pleasantly warm beneath his fingertips. Next he went to check on her breathing, he moved his hand so that it hovered just above her nose and mouth. To his horror he felt nothing, no warm gentle air greeted his palm, without it he felt cold and frightened.

_'This is bad, very, very bad' _he thought as he moved to place his head on her still chest.

To his utter relief he heard the soft thumping of her heart in her chest. But it wouldn't be beating long if he didn't do something to get her breathing soon, even now he could hear it slowing down. Toph's very life was slowly fading, with each beat getting less and less strong; Sokka could feel his own heart breaking. He looked around desperately searching for someone or something to help him in his dilemma, only to discover that the battle had moved on with out him. The invasion force was slowly but surely gaining ground pushing the Fire Nation back inland. He was all alone, like the last leave on a tree near the end of fall; he could almost feel the winter cold creeping up on him as he stared back down at Toph.

His breathing quickened as he desperately racked his brain for a way to save her. He wanted to kick himself, normally he was so good at thinking fast, like when he had to bandage Suki's ankle. But now everything seemed to fail him he couldn't stop thinking of her as being dead he couldn't stand the sight of her motionless body. He forced his eyes shut and took a deep breath. Suddenly an idea struck him. He would have to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; there was no other way. Without hesitation Sokka tilted her head back, he then checked to make sure her air passage was clear before pinching her nose shut and taking three deep breaths to steady his breathing. Holding in the last breath he moved his head down and crashed his open mouth against hers.

Her lips felt cold and he quickly exhaled forcing air into her lungs. Her chest swelled up before Sokka removed his mouth from hers to take another breath. Again their mouths met as Sokka pushed more air, more life, into Toph's small body. When he pulled away this time he was dismayed to see that no noticeable change had come ever her. She looked just as peaceful as ever. He gulped, and pushing down his panic, he took another deep breath. Once more their mouths came together. He breathed into her, forcing all his will and determination into that one single breath.

As he removed his mouth to take another futile breath, he was met with the most wonderful thing in the world. It crashed into his face leaving his skin slightly damp and warm, and it was like beautiful music to his ears. It was coughing. Rough hacking coughs that were spilling up blackish brown bile from Toph's mouth. He quickly turned her head to the side so that she would not choke on the substance spilling from her mouth. Finally her coughing stopped and she lay still, breathing softly. It was then that Sokka let his tears flow; they came in great currents down the side of his face, hot and blinding. He cried with joy and relief, he cried for everything he had almost lost, his love, his future, and his life. If Toph had died he would have been a wreck, a hollow shell of what was once a man, living only because there was nothing else he could do. He would have been with out purpose.

He slumped to the ground and gently held Toph's head in his arms, completely forgetting about the battle around him. That is until he was painfully reminded. His saw lights dance in front of his eyes as a heavy club collided with his scull, sending him flying backwards and landing with a dull thud on the ground. His head felt like it was split in two and, as he quickly lifted it to identify his attacker, he felt warm sticky blood trickle down his face and into his left eye. Ignoring the pain and dizziness he quickly reached for his sword. He was shocked to discover that it was no longer there.

A soldier was charging him; club raised high prepared for a deadly blow. Sokka wasn't giving up that easily, not when Toph was still in danger. He stood his ground with a frightened look on his face, then as the man swung down on his head Sokka suddenly rolled out of the way. The club hit the ground with such a force that it broke the wooden object in half. There was no doubted in Sokka's mind that that would have killed him. He sprang to his feet and kicked the man hard in the back sending him toppling forward. Sokka then quickly ran to retrieve his sword. When he picked it up and turned around the soldier was behind him again and swung half his club towards Sokka's face. Sokka blocked the attack with his sword only to be hit with the other half of the club. A new wave of blinding pain shot through his head and he kicked out randomly with his right leg. It connected with the soldier's armoured shin and only made Sokka's foot hurt. Suddenly he was shoved backwards and landed on his back his sword once again falling out of reach. This time however he used his legs to trip his opponent and quickly grabbed his sword. He vaulted from his position on the ground and drove his sword into the man's chest, killing him almost instantly.

Breathing heavily he staggered back to Toph. His head was pounding and he felt awfully groggy, his legs felt like lead, and he barely had enough energy to lift them. When he got to her side she was still out cold and he fell heavily to his knees.

"Toph…" he muttered as darkness consumed him and he fell face down in the dirt next to her.

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**A/N- Hope you enjoyed this chapter and even if you didn't I would love it if you left me a review you don't have to praise me you can tell me what I did wrong. The longer the review the better. Since every time I say I'm gonna have a chapter up soon something comes up I'm just gonna say I have no idea when the next one will be up (Hopefully soon)**

**-Megi**


	16. NOTICE

**A/N(Of Doom)- I am so sorry every one for not updating but like a week after I posted the last chapter I found out that I was was moveing to Utah, I used to live in Ohio, Thats clear across the country 0_0. So then I spent my last days in Ohio packing and hanging out with friends and this story just got shoved away somehow. Then when we moved out here we didn't have a computer right away and when we did I sat down to wright and relized that inspiration had left me completely. And now that I have turned 18 my mom is going to allow me to move back and stay with a friend of mine. Its gonna be sweet but scary cause I'll be out on my own. Word of advice to all you youngsters out there DON'T GROW UP TOO FAST ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN!!!**

**Anyway now that I have bored you if anyone would like to try and finish this story feel free just let me know. PM me and I'll decide whether or not you are worthy BWAHAHAHA!!!!**

**Yours truly**

**-Megi**


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